Connecticut western news., 1917-02-22
A Florentine
 Episode
By ELINOR MARSH


 career, concluded to spend season in Europe. He sailed from New York to Naples, thence proceeded to Rome and later to Florence.
 It is supposed by persons who have not been in Italy that one sees every where relics of the ancient Romans There are comparatively few such relics, but there are many of mediaeval Italy. The most costly dwellings are "palazzoS," built several centuries ago. Hemstreet took a fancy to Florence and concluded to spend some time there, so he rented palazzo, or, rather, half a one, and, hiring servants, settled himself down, as it were, in the middle of the sixteenth century.
 The building had been divided into two parts, the part that Hemstreet did not occupy being occupied for d small family hotel, or rather what in Eu- rope is called pension, which is mid way between a hotel and q boarding house.
 One rainy afternoon Hemstreet, who had spent most of the day in the pie ture galleries for which Florence is noted, came to his palazzo. It was so dark that his servants had lighted the lamps, and, going upstairs, as he en- tered the hall on which his bedroom was located, he was astonished to see that the hall was double the length he had supposed it to be. At any rate, he saw double the lights, but they were dim, as were the objects they lighted
 Hemstreet was very much puzzled.
 Going into his room he threw off his wet, overcoat and rubber shoes. then went out with the intention of s exploring the hall. He was surprised to see that it ended as he had under stood it to end with picture.
 Hemstreet was frightened. Surely something had broken loose in his brain. He went to the picture, exam ined it, saw that it was what he had supposed it was and went away resolv- ed to watch himself closely for other symptoms of a disordered mind. But he felt as well as he had ever felt, and after awhile he ceased to worry about any supposed disorder.
 However, he never went upstairs to his room without looking as soon as he turned into the hallway to see if it had been doubled as before. But the fig ures of the picture were always there, and the hallway was of its usual length.
 One night when Hemstreet was in bed he heard, or fancied he heard, a ,rfor ;,,t tI, en in the house except a couple of housemaids who knew their place and were in bed when Hemstreet had come / in. Curious to know what the sound meant, he arose and, cautiously open ing his door enough to see through the aperture, saw a sight that amazed him more than his previous unexplained one. A young girl stood in the hall facing the picture, laughing and beck oning. She was all aquiver with ex- citement, though she did not speak except in pantomime.
 Thunderstruck, Hemstreet turned from the door, felt in closet for q dressing gown, then hunted for a pair of slippers beside his bed, for he dare not strike light for fear, of soaring the apparition without, then returned to the door, threw it open and went out intending, if it were flesh and blood, to capture it.
 The hall was empty.
 He looked to the end toward which the girl had beckoned. There was the picture, its figures immovable as ever.
 Hemstreet went back to bed in won der. Somehow it did not seem to him that he had seen d ghost. He felt no terror, though he began to worry anew lest there was hitch in his brain. He lay awake most of the night trying to solve the problem. but finally went to sleep thinking of it.
 He arose the next morning shortly before time for luncheon and stood looking out on to the street. A cab drove up to the pension, next door, and a party alighted. which included sev- eral girls. Hemstreet was thunder struck to recognize in one of these girls the one who had stood in his hall way the night before.
 It was now evident that the appari- tion was flesh and blood and doubtless on lark. Hcmstreet went next door and asked if there was any passage i way between the pension and his domi- ! cile, but the landlady answered him that the two wings had been thorough ly cut off from each other. She had n motive in this since she suspected that Hemstreet had lost property, which ! would be laid to some one in her wing. | Hemstreet kept an eye out for the apparitiOn ill the galleries and finally ! came upon her. She was an American with q party of Americans. After se- curing an introduction to her he ac- i cused her of having trespassed on his premises. She colored and after some hesitation confessed.
 A hallway extending from one end to the other of the original pala2zo had been cut in two parts by a door swing ing on a central pivot. On one side