Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-07-11

wildly as though 1t were taking place
at the moment: The procession UP the
aisle of the ancient chapel, the names
of her ancestors OF the stones over
which she walked; for beneath every
f1agstone slept a Poher, and above
her head their lances were couched in
the rafteTs. They seemed to rise up
from the stones pictures as they
were on the walls of the castle-to try
and bar her passage to the altar
steps. But she made her way through
them to where her affianced husband
stood, smiling triumphant welcome.
AS she came up to him she saw the
anguished face Of Fabian Dare. He,
too, like her spectred ancestors,
seemed to be waving her back; but
some stronger force urged her for
ward, and she heard every word Of
the marriage service in the Bishops
solemn voice.
Then came the moment when she
went up to her room to put on her
travelling dress, leaving the guests
laughing in the hall below, handing
about the rice and the hall slippers.
Vandraken accompanied her down
the corridor, and stood for a
at the door Of her room. He opened
the door for her and she entered. The
maid was standing lear by-her back
was turned.
Then her husbands voice called to
her, in tones shrill with fear, to come
out. AS she did SO the maid laughed
softly as she slammed the door and
locked it. She could hear him beating
on 1T with his hands and calling for
ha1n A ooir tho ~ n IA Jo,,,boJ l,,4 .o-
she turned round. Her face was
changed the glasses were gone, and
eyes which were alive with evil look
ed into her own. She tried to shut her
eyes, but some force held them open,
compelling them to look into the gilt
tering things in front of her. They
seemed to her like the eyeholes Of a
s~tereopticon, looking through which
all manner of horrible pictures sue
ceeded n another like a kineto-
scope gone mad.
She sank to the floor and the wom-
and sank with her, coiling round her
like a snake. She tried to scream but
no sound came. She saw herself, a
crumpled heap of lace and satin, the
woman coiled among them like a
black snake in a bed of lilies. The
I'M did not seem to say anything,
only to force her to look at the pic
lures. In every one of them she saw
Vandraken moving through scenes of
saturnalia, with a face which every
picture made to look more and more
like the face she had caught a
glimpse of in the chapel the last time
Fabian Dare eve preached. Dimly as
such things come in dreams, she re-
ceived an impression of the whole hor-
rible story.
Again she tried to scream and this
time succeeded, and, as she did so,
woke. A woman was bending over
her.
At first she though it was the shad-
ow of her dream, still haunting her,
so thin is the line between the dream
and the reality.
"Miladi has the bad dream yes?",
1t was the voice of her maid. Then
came the cruel, padded laugh the
woman had given her in the her
dream when she shut the door. Then
the same eyes forced themselves upon
her the sin-saturated eyes which
hardened men had not dared to look
into.
Lady hltty trled 10 scream again..
This time she failed. All her faculties
seemed to have been frozen up, except
the power to see and hear.
"I,meant that you should marry him
first, and then I'd tell you all about
him, but could not wait. 1t was
keaw of me but I could not wait.
Perhaps it is better for me that you
do not marry him-me, Veeda Venes-
ira, to whom he is married by all the
ceremonies of the temples! The little
fool! She has tainted" observed the
Cobra, suddenly noticing that her vic
TINS eye were closed. "And | had so
much to tell her. But l think I did tell
her In her dream yes, l think she
will no marry him now" She glided
out of the room, locking the door be-
hind her. AS she did SO the sound of
the dressing-gong invaded the cor
ridor.
(To be Continued.)