Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1921-05-07
CHAPTER NINE
The Changeling.
!. TRANSLATION.

unawares In the studio. her unclos.
Ing eyes comprehended only dark
ness absolute.
Unlike that time, when she had
reused instantaneously, self-conscious-
ness springing suddenly, full witted,
full powered, clear, out of nightmare
thralldom, now she awoke slowly and
at expense of effort almost painful :
senses and perceptions struggling long
and arduously to break the embrace
Of lethargy so deep and undisturbed
that the self-sense had lain in 1t. be-
numbed and stifled, like a seed that
slumbers In the pent darkness of
the earth against the coming of the
spring.
In the confusion of those first wax
ing moments she believed herself to
be at home. in bed
But the darkness Of her bedchamber
had never been sheer; there was al
ways diffused glow from the lights
In the street to temper 1t.
Then she remembered, duly. the
studio and the WEAKNESS that had
weighed upon her in the afternoon.
she must have slept several hours
nit the least reckoning, for it had been
broad daylight when she lay down,
the evenings were long, and 1t was
now, Judging by the blackness Of 1t
and the silence, dead of night
But she looked In vain for the
violet-tinted rectangle of the north
light.
And mysteriously the windows were
shut which had been open when she
stretched out to rest. For there was
not only an utter absence of light but
smothering lack of fresh air Her
lungs starving, she lay for some time
stupidity contemplating the exertion
that would be needed to rise and open
one Of the windows. Somehow she
could not seem to nerve herself to 1t.
She was feeling actually Ill, sdueam-
ish. Her limbs were stiff and heavy.
her hands hot, her cheeks and fore
head afire, prickling sensation af-
fiicted her body. she was athirst and
the taste i'm her mouth was evil; and
when she moved her head upon the
pillow, pain like brutal blow crashed
from temple to temple and back again
and again, forcing feeble groans past
her lips.
Nevertheless conditions such as
these were uncomfortable. AT whatever
cost, she must have water and fresh
air. -.
She steeled herself and presently,
by supreme exertion of will power
forced herself to sit up. For the time
being she could no more. The pain
rocked and smashed about like mad
thing, till she wondered would it break
her skull. And as by degrees those
transports subsidized, she was taken
with qualms of nausea.
She must have kicked off her shoes
I'm her sleep. At least, she could not
remember removing them before lying
down. At all whatever had
become of them--they were gone. Be
meath her stockinged feet the floor
was bare and rough, of unfinished
wood. Now, there was rug beside
the divan In the studio And even
had 1t been spirited away like her
shoes, the studio floor was of hard
wood neatly Joined and polished till
its surface was like glass.
Then hand that she dropped to
the edge Of her couch encountered the
coarse ticking OF an uncovered mat
tress, instead of the silken rug that
clothed the divan.
Slowly 1t was borne In upon her that
she was neither In her bedchamber
nor in her studio.
This conviction struck home to her
with shock that
brought her to her feet. What had
Where was she-and who2
Was she Priscilla Maine, delirious?
Or was she Leonora---yet once again
that puppet of her life In dreams, en-
barked upon some new and still more
terrible adventure?
But Leonora was no more
She took a blind step into obscurity
and another. blundered into chair
and knocked 1t over with clatter.
While she waited. dashed, hands
wildly at vacant blackness,
n key turned in reluctant lock, o
door opened. closed. and was relocked.
Priscilla failed to elicit more than
A harsh, inarticulate whisper from a
swollen throat.
A match rasped and spluttered In
the murk, gas-jet Kissed from a
spreading fan-like fame
with body Of CHASTITY blue and bor-
der of tawny yellow.
1t revealed a mean and ugly cubicle,
perhaps SIX feet by eight. with dlngy
walls to whose crumbllng plaster chung
a few dismal rags of ancient paper.
The single window was stoutly board
ed ON the inside. The begrimed floor
was stranger alike to carpeting and
soap and water. had apparently been
80 since time out of memory. For
there was small table of
painted wood, the overturned chair,
and a scorbutic iron bedstead with
Eway-backed springs, lunpy mattress
and one cmAciated pillow.