Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1920-12-03
CHAPTER TWO
The Antagonists.
|. PRISCILLA.

RouSing on an elbow, Priscilla
Maine found herself awake. with a
racing heart, throat swollen with a |
strangled cry of horror, and mind |
through whose painted murk the re-
Election of a woman's screams ran like
a thread of purple light.
Yet here was only darkness, with
silence absolute :.
With a low gasp of relief that was
half a sob of fright as well, she sprang
up from the divan, stumbled to the
wall. and after a moments cropping
flooded the studio with milky radiance
from an inverted dome. And in a pas
sion of gratitude she embraced the re-
assurance inherent in the atmosphere
of that richly furnished, spacious and
silent studio. her fathers workshop
till his death and ever since her own.
It was true, then: she was safely
restored to her own intimate environ
ment, where nothing resembled even
remotely that frowsy room where
murders had been done. She had
merely dreamed dream, one more of
those amazingly real dreams which
she had learned to accept without pro-
test as phenomena of slumber unavoid-
able, singularly harmless, and on the
whole rather amusing.
So at least they seemed till this
night when, for the first time, stark
tragedy had stalked unbidden and un-
heralded, rending with ruthless hands
the flimsy texture of illusion and rem
dering the dream more fact to her
than this awakening, more true, and
so much the more terrible.
Pressing palms to temples that
throbbed and burned intolerably with
their content Of thoughts acrawl with
fright and horror, she made her way
to the bathroom and bathed her face
with cold water, then with cologne
till, in the sensory reaction of stimu-
lated flesh and nerves, she began to
feel measurably more calm and self
possessed, more Priscilla Maine than
"Leonora"
A twittering telephone recalled her
to the studio. Receiver to ear, she
said, "Yes? Who is it?" and heard the
agitated cries of the elderly kinswom-
an whom she called aunt and with
whom she had her home.
"Priscillal Where have you been
, all evening? I've been half frantic
, Why didn't you let me know?'
: 81 haven't been anywhere. dear
' only asleep, here in the studio. Please
i. don't be cross, Aunt Esther; I didn't
E go to do 1t, honest I didn't! Mrs
4 Morey left in the middle of the after
e noon-she had tea on, or something
t and about half after five stopped
Q painting and thought I'd lie down ant
f rest little before coming home"
do hurry. I'll send Arthur with tn
g car at once"
o please"
d She donned hat and cloak before
mirror in whose insusceptible depth
G she saw, set in her own hat and ind
/, vidual coiffure, the face Of the gin
q whom in her dreams she knew as Lee
e nora and yet it was likewise the fac
d of Priscilla Maine. Vainly with in
Is Fortunate eyes she questioned tha
II counterfeit of two countenances. Ho'
could this thing be? Was she one won
r, an waking and another when sh
K slept? Was there in her dual pc
is sonality such as reading had taugi
OF her to accept as psychological poss
h bility? Did two natures struggle witt
Id in her, one prevailing in her hours (
pc slumber,' and not always even then?
ne That train of speculation she WE
at afraid to pursue too far -.