The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-10


 was beginning to attend St Polycarp's he
 thought he might so far jeopardize his
 soul as to go himself and see what prog ress was making in the affair of hearts
 which he had prearranged. He saw Iris
 and the young Marylander looking over
 the same prayer book one Sunday and
 was encouraged. But then, the way Iris
 looked at the Little Gentleman at break
 fast next morning-if that did not mean love- then what does love look like when
 one sees it? One day Iris told the pro-
 lessor that the Scottish gift of second
 sight ran in her family and she was afraid she had it. Persons who have this gift may look upon a well man and see a shroud about him. According to the ex- tent to which the shroud covers him his death will be near or remote. Now sci- ence had given the professor something of the same gift, for he was a medical
 professor, and when he looked upon the Little Gentleman he could see from day to day that the shroud was rapidly cov-
 ering him.
 He considered it his duty to tell the landlady, and that estimable woman said:
 Poor, dear Little Gentleman-and he
 will leave the best room in the house
 vacant, too. Complications of diseases, 1
 suspect-liver complaint one of 'em?' He
 told Iris. Her face remained calm save
 for a twitching about the lips. Could he
 be sure that it was a mortal disease?
 We'll, it looked alarming. He shall have
 some of my life," said Iris resolutely.
 It was a fancy of hers that she could
 will her strength away to others-a sort
 of magnetic power that she could give away. From that day Iris began to grow
 pale and seemed to lose vigor. The pro-
 lessor sometimes thought that the Little Gentleman gained the power she lost but probably that was merely a whim of
 his.
 One day Iris, looking deadly pale, came
 suddenly to the professor. Her lips moved as if she were speaking, but he could
 not, at first, hear a word. Her hair looked strangely as if lifting itself and her eyes were full of wild light. AL though only the professor knew it, Iris was subject, at rare intervals to curious spells" going into a semi-conscious or subconscious trance-like state, and he thought now, as she sank into chair,
 that she was going to have one of these spells" But she managed to control herself, and stold him that she had had vision that had frozen her blood-she believed that she had seen a shrouded figure. He did not need to inquire whose figure it was that she had seen thus shrouded in her second sight.
 That night the professor was suddenly called to attend the Little Gentleman in
 professional capacity. He found him very ill indeed-past hope, but likely to live for some days nevertheless. As he | left the Little Gentlemans room and passed into the creaking corridor the house was deadly still and the night wind, blowing through an open window struck, l him as from field of ice. AS he turned | into the passage white figure holding a | light stood full before him. It was Iris in | one of her statue frances. With white, l bare feet her hair loosely knotted, dressed l as the starlight knew her and the morning when she rose from slumber, save that ] she had twisted scarf round her long | white dress, she stood still as a stone \ before him, holding in one hand coil of | lighted taper and in the other a silver ] goblet. It was the silver goblet engraven l EEK dono pupillorum,' which the tutors , pupils had given him upon the birth of 1 Iris and from which she had taken her milk and possets through all her childish | years. She had been warned in a | dream" doubtless suggested by her walk ing thoughts and the sounds which she i had heard in her exalted state and there | was nothing more natural than that she | should have risen in her sleep girded | her waist and lighted her taper, found | the silver goblet and gone blindly to take | her place at the bedside where something | told her she was wanted.
 The professor called her by name. but