Year: 1878




plainly in my dreams, Notwithstanding
the want of light and the effort l my
self am making. to drag the body across
the road to hurl it down the steep slope?


"But, ah what new and strange rev.
elation is this /? What new and terrible
solution to this mysterious dreaming is
about to be made to me? The Grape
mask, that has always hitherto hidden
from me the mans face, is gone; and [
behold in my assailant and robber the
unmistakable features of but
I dare not write his name, lest this fall
into other hands than ours, mother
but you will understand who it was that
| thus saw in my dreams, when | say
that it was he who is the unhappy cause
of our great grief and sorrow, and who
we suppose now to be far away. was
awake again the instant after this, in
frame of mind exceeding in its agony
anything 1 had ever felt. If I might
accept all that had gone before as por-
tent, why should l doubt that the catas-
trophe was to be brought about by this
unhappy man? 1t would not be more
marvellous than any other part of my
never-failing dream. Should there be
any truth in it, and it was my destiny
to be attacked aud robbed by him, then
there was sufficient reason for my not
claiming the protection which compan-
ion on that journey might give me. No;
I now knew l must 60 alone to meet


whatever might befall, or to dispel at


once and forever the shadow of the


dream. If l was really so to meet him


in the flesh, if he really be in England,


no one must know it but myself. Then


the dream may, after all, become the


bene6cent means of saving him, and pre-


serving me from the committal of deed


that would weigh upon me to the end of


time.


"Thus concluding on the morning af-


ter my expedition with Mr.. Shepfold, l


had but to wait for this, the momentous


day. 1t has come, and in few hours


| shall be on my road. For the last sew


en- successive nights, the vision, with all


its latent circumstances, has been pres


ent whenever, through sheer fatigue, l


have given way to sleep; whilst by day,


its shadow has darkened on me hourly,


to the exclusion of all but that scene on


the Whiteways.


81 start, at least, prepared. "


-U--7 H. woo 4hn Iirht haununr thai


this statement let in upon the catastro-


phe. 10 be brief, it led to nothing prac-


tical nothing more could be done until


young Chase had recovered sufficiently


to be able to give a personal account ol


the affair. Months passed before this
was possible his health returned very
slowly. The doctors forbid any ques
7 tioning or excitement, and / really die
not know the details of anything tina
7 had transpired until he was pronounced
fit to appear before our board of direc
tors.


Then I was present, with the rest o
| the people concerned. 1t was like pri
a vate court of justice, and young Chas
t was arraigned, as it were, like Grimm
G al. When he came into the room hi
o altered appearance was startling. | ha
n only seen him twice since his setting ou
y on the fatal journey once, when he wa
b lying quite insensible at the turnpike


and once, when he was only little bel
# ter, at the county hospital. He no.
d looked twenty years older; his thin, pal
% face was deeply furrowed, his long, dar
d hair thickly tinged with grey, and tn
e dreamy expression in his large eyes ha
d changed to one of wildness, whilst b
1T black clothes added to his weird, ghos
l. like appearance. He pulled himself t.
lie gether, however, by great effort, ant
r in answer to the questions the chairma
lie put, this is about what he said, as nes
r as can remember:


re "The statement which you, gentleme'
e, found addressed to my poor mother, an


which you have just read to me, is stric
re ly true to the letter. 1t is fuller ths
70 any account could give now, of n
tn feelings and state of mind prior to IL
ID 18th of November. l have very lit
< to add, but will tell you what | can.
1 "As approached the Whiteways,
as my return homeward journey, all Il
D. conditions of my dream were realized.
Oh appeared to have been within them
o. often before that might have be-
to dreaming them. Everything was so t
I'M miliar. There was no difference betwe
Id my sensations asleep or awake. | HI
m no sense of being, of actual existent
Id in one state more than in the other
it felt was gliding to my destiny, glidi
we without movement, without bodily effo
ht precisely as one does in sleep. I c
- give no better account of what happent
ke The fog wrapped me round. There "
ey an interval, an impression that | "
ate struggling; I appeared to fall and th
in l awoke in the hospital, two mont
en back. I can tell you no more"


to "But did you see no one? Did