Show VISION OF A NIGHT ANNA RANDALL DIEHL TELLS A STRANGE WEIRD STORY A Suii > inrr Nights Kxperlonco in the Haunted lloom of a House In Hampshire Hamp-shire England The Komance of I Life Itevcalcd The Music of the Spheres Special Correspondence NEW TonK July 4 I bad advertised in a London paper for board and a settled for Lie summer in a great rambling house just in the outskirts of a pretty but quaint old town I bad a parlor a cozy study where my jneals were also served and n bedroom The apartments were suited t my wants and quit according t my taste There was a vine covered porch where I swung my hammock Here too in a corner Minded by clustering leaves was a little table here I wrote on pleasant days S One afternoon while sitting there I watched k a bumming bird a it flitted from branch t t branch when voices reached my ear and I listened almost unaware And does the lady occupy the haunted rom sid one Yes she does not know the tales and may i not have ben disturbed a yet but she will t hear the voices some time and ten our poor landladys rooms will again b vacant Tell me the story said the frt speaker I have never heard it in detail though from snatches gathered here and there I am familiar fa-miliar with the general outline And this was the substance the narrative I beard Long ago when the house was new a young couple lately marie were its occupants occu-pants and owners The lady a beautiful though she had great sad eyes and did not seem happy Her a husband was a man of wealth intelligence and of birth but in good morose manner i and unpopular in the neighborhood How the marriage had come about no ono could tell it was apparently only a union in name as far a the husband was concerned i though the lady seemed to love this man of I ice with and almost devotion I ic a strange n almot worshipful votion A child at last came into this inharmoniou household and for time its I a tme it presence seemed t develop almost a human affection in the fathers heart J But there were stories told by servants of 4 their masters harshness to his gentle wife and thee the gossips caught and told with t additions of their own Three or four years passed on when the country was suddenly startled by the sudden t I death of the lady and after the funeral was over there were hints that all was not well f The family physician however who bad been called in just in time t see his patient Ti 1 t breathe her last told a plausible story which displayed much medical profundity that the 1 country people could not understand and so they wore confounded into silence l Not many months had passed when tho grass spring had grown about the grave i and the violets were filling the air with fragrance the house became vacant 1 The agent who was intrusted with the sale I of the place was directed t send all letters t I the owner t a certain address in London g and nothing more was known > j I might have ben the varying sound of I the wind but it was affirmed that there were 1 J human voices beard at night in the empty I bouse a mans tones metallic and unfeeling a womans pleading voice mingled with sobs and the prattle of a little child If i And so a these reports were current rear j after year the house stood vacant until atc at-c last was found a tenant a boarding housekeeper house-keeper who was willing to face the supernatural J super-natural terrors of the place in view of having little rent t pay Ii r The story ended I knew that I must b mamfetton M l l I t rn T wns not given to superstitious fears u Ilelrenu iYJt VI 1ltr rriw JiaoM onntu 1 ped asunder and wishing t dismiss nAn the C story from my mind I stretched myself in I time hammock and was soon lost in 1 fascinat M ing book the gift of a friend and which the morning mail bad brought me t I had lodged in the rooms a month and Jr 1 bad never heard unusual sounds or seen any 11t thing to rouse my fears but the night following If follow-ing that very day ns if t make the word I s had overheard come true I had a vision f t I awoke suddenly t find standing in the middle of my room a tall figure As the 1 moonbeams came faintly through the vines I and entered J the window I saw a beautiful t I woman clad in flowing white In the hollow I of one hand she held fccinething like a vestal g lamp which burned with a pale blue flame JJ Ii and with the other she beckoned mo to follow fol-low her with i a strange magnetism which I I 1 lounu unpossiDie t i esist I obeyed hesitatingly I bad locked i x and bolted my door when I went t bed but 1 it now opened without touch at our k wihout tuch approach d ap-proach and closed when we had passed outside out-side J bideMy TO f My guide went on before while I followed 11 as she led and with the same gliding movement a move-ment a her own in which there was no q measured tread or use of feet Out under t the stars we went and us I looked up t the > S 5 vault above 1 seemed under her guidance to fathom the mysteries of the firmament to I I see what could not be discovered by the nnt tr url eye even though gazing through the mightiest telescope and while I was wrapped r in wonder and delight somethilg wrpp i divine strains of a grand oratorio burst upon C lily enr t I is the music of the spheres said my spirit guide When that sound had died away I heard faint melody beneath my feet which learned 1 was the IIIUMC of buds a they unfolded into i leaves all as color was added t the expanding expand-ing petals of the flowers it came with a dancing t r danc-ing ihythm breaking with exquisite harmony har-mony upon my ear 3 You wonder at what you see and heart hear-t but you must know that long before the creation < r 1 crea-tion of the ohJehe man there existed ethe > rt rl l races in whom a cycle after cycleS cycle-S rolled on the senses one by one developed 4i The spiritual ee and car then saw and beard 1 lint hns Iwen shut out by physical grossuess < 1 since Adam came But there have been in i c all ages a favored few who have retained this Af a wonderful power of hearing aul of sight + li This I posssHd in the earth life as now and r I IM vo iwww to communion t it to you butt but-t t i I for this night only t tj I You have heard the story of my short sad t C life my strange and sudden death i i This subtle spiritual essence which 1 poss i s eil I was in such antagonism t my earth m m IKJUW amid well nigh soulless companion that be sought my death I passed out of life by e my husbands hand how it matters not now D to tel j t Come and 1 will show you how I haunt bis dreams1 Irtlls 1 I We stood in a richly furnished room where f a man lay sleeping Slowly back and forth i p the specter waved her lamp before his face iC and a the blue flame played about his handsome hand-some features it disclosed a gleam of wicked I i lies ns if a de ils soul shone out He moved I u uneasily as if in horrid dreams and groaned I and muttered inarticulate words which j i sounded like smothered curses Every night i I I ftlt iv In lnvfcide amid every morning he fr 4 rises unrefreshed by sleep I Jove ini with all the ardor of my nature and I am m j 11 not willingly arol tormentor I but obey the fate Inch has commanded me to perform I this service nut come t the chamber of child P my chid A young girl with sunny hair floating over wl bur pillow was rapped in happy f lumber t The spirit mother bent over the maiden and n imprinted a kiwi upon the lips whifh a mol ment after murmured MotherJ in artic l 11nt 1mml Mother illn Ut c l ulate whisper This is my present recompense b recom-pense but it is not all By nightly visitin her couch I keep my memory ever in bei t mind and when the earth life with her i J t ave Dee over webi no 0 htrangers bu mother and daughter still in Paradise A few minutes later and we were back in my own room I was not conscious during my journey thither The moonbeams were atill struggling through the vines My visitor was standing where she first appeared Suddenly Sud-denly passing her hand over the blue flame the vestal lamp was extinguished and the tall fi tire sank down with a shimmering moO iient to the floor and was lost to sight I was sitting up in bed and was wide awake I remembered every detail of my nocturnal journey and bad seen a plain a eyes could 50 my visitor shimmer away and sink into nothing I stretched out my arms I pinched iv hands rubbed my eye I was certainly in ull pc Mjs > > jon of my senses Eagerly i looked around the room t see i my strange visitor and left nny traces of her coming and in the Jim light I discovered in the farther corner a if11 white object What material thing it was I cvud not imagine and I determined to investigate in-vestigate I reached for matches They w ere of tho explosive sort and a I struck them one by one with a report like a pistol shot they went out I persevered however and at last was rewarded with a light I then learned that the tall bolster lenre tl object was a blstr whIch incased in starched and w was ince a stiffly stche lnd ample cover I had tossed it into a large arm chair which was placed against the wall nnd there it stood like a sentinel Before I closed my ees t sleep again I bad solved the ghostly problem The story I had beard during the preceding d hiy had furnished the material for my vision I had probably opened my eyes in my sleep and from the white bolster in the corner ha constructed the figure of the murdered woman Lying in my hammock after listening to the conversation in the garden I had read Man Fragments of a Forgotten History that of spirit evolution told b strange story tld by Two Chelas in the Theosophical Society of London Henco the music of buds and flowers an revolving worlds of spiritual visions reaching beyond the limit of material sight t sun and distant stars So much time had been lost by reading during the day that I was obliged t makeup make-up my literary work at night and s t keep myself awake until that was accomplished I prepared a cup of coffee This I had made over a small alcohol lamp which bunied with a blue light and over which a extinguisher had been placed w n the flame was no longer needed and tn I accounted for the vestal lamp A strong cup of coiuo had conjured up my ghost and sent me with her on her nightly rou nd I remained in my pleasant rooms until long after the autumn leaves bad fallen and no further evidence t my material senses of spiritual presence ever came ANNA RANDALL Dims |