The west shore., August 01, 1889, Page 447, Image 40

THE WEST SHORE.
4(7
the office counter; it was four o'clock. What a freak
I had engaged inl I felt aa foolish as one who at
midday remembers his fears of an imaginary ghost at
twilight I hastened to the door to recall the me.
BODgor, but he had turned a corner and was beyond
the reaoh of my voice, I looked a moment at the calm
nighi There was no moon; a meteor fell slantingly
across the northeastern sky; myriads of stars shone
from the clear vault of heaven; a heavy freight train
toiled slowly up the grade a mile or two away, the en
gine's deep pulsations coming in measured swolls on
the still air. This peaceful scene calmed my soul
and put to flight my fears. I again retired to rest
and slept profoundly until a late hour in the morning.
As soon as I had breakfasted I sought my cousin's
abode. The morning was beautiful in the extreme,
and I walked slowly to enjoy the exhilarating effect
of sunshine and atmosphere. My cousin mot me at
the gate.
" I was just going to see you," was his abrupt
greeting, as he took my hand and led me toward the
house. " dome up stairs at once and tell me what
has happened."
" Happened? " said I, " I dont understand you."
Winthrop dropped my hand and gazed at me with
a look of mingled surprise and pain. " Do you mean
to say you sent me that strange message in the night
time merely as a joke? "
" What message? Oh, that note? No, it wasn't
intended as a joke, cousin, though I guess we had
better let it pass for one and say no more about it.
The fact is, I had a troublesome dream, and I acted
upon an irresistible impulse. It was silly, I confess;
but what did I write?"
I had, singularly enough, no memory of the do
tails of my dream or of the letter I had so strangoly
Bent my cousin. I remembered the bare fact of get
ting up in the night and writing something, and that
I had sent it to him long before dawn. The reoollec
tion at this hour was a very ludicrous one, and I felt
inclined to turn it off by a little merriment Win
throp looked at me sharply.
" You are not in earnest," he said. " Yoo tried to
frighten me by a ruse, and now becauso you are
ashamed of your folly you pretend to be ignorant of
it"
" No, indeed," I replied, " I haven't the remotest
idea what that letter contained."
Winthrop looked at me in dismay. Lifting up a
volume of Brownings poems, which was lying on a
small table, he took from underneath it a letter. 1 he
envelope bore the return card of the hotel.
M Read it," he cried, thrusting it into my hand,
took i piece of common print paper frora within, up
on which I read the following in my own handwriting:
To-lUv.
My I'M Coi'MX. YYe r owmlng the Mine lirltlmv II
n of your fiHtiit. Anxiutulr yours, Annus.
Twice I read the mystio linos before I looked at
my cousin; and then the attempted smile fled from
my faoe aa if in the presence of sudden calamity, for
behind thoso enigmatical words was a picture, the
horrible pioture of my forgotten dream, whloh now re
appeared to me with startling vividness. Royond this
the words of warning were at meaningless to me as to
Winthrop. They must have boon written in obedi
ence to some overpoworing phantasy; certainly they
were not the result of reflection or judgment, for in
the event of either resuming its funotions I should
have regarded my fears as no more to be heeded than
the phantasmagoria of a dream. 1 oonfeas my Ina
bility to render any explanation of this mysterious
presentiment even to this day. I simply narrate the
facts as they occurred, and the reader may take them
and thoir connection, if any, with my story for just
what they are worth.
" Well, for my part, I hate dreams," said Win.
throp, resuming the conversation. " There Is some
thing supernatural about them, something we can not
understand However, it can't be any worse to know
what it is, so tell me all about it"
I recounted the particulars of my dream without
any hesitation, because, as one who has always been
subject to strange dreams, I was Inclined to pay it
bnt little hood I noticed, however, that it produced
a deep impression upon my oouiin, so much so that
I rallied him on his superstition. Then I proposed a
walk, which I knew he enjoyed, and we started forth
in the calm, mild, September sun.
How delightful it was! Never shall I forget that
walk. The early awakening and the strange exoita
meut, united with the intoxication of his whole being
in a great passion seemed to have rendered Winthrop
supersensitive to the influences of the sky, the land
sca;e, the empurpling wxle and the odorous winds,
which, too faint to blow, fitfully bathed us like the
perfumed air of a lady's boudoir. Tosseased of an
ardent poetical temperament blch he only half
truthfully dicribod m ImperturUble, Winthrop
yielded himself unreservedly to the charms of the
ocraaion, ami his conversation flowed forth rich and
folL lie told me more than ever beforo of his
aims iu life, and his devotion to art, his abiding,
!u).t unreasoning, faith in humanity. To listen to
the outpourings of his enthusiasm, which I knew
welled up from a heart as yot unsullied by the vile
Uiut of the world's hypocrisy, it smed if we wers
tn.lin on tin ll id I'J'Un hmin,
Ami limi.n Mt'irt iemlti ln.