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IFROM THE DEaD.

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I FROM THE DEaD. [BY SPES.] (ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.) CHAPTER I. Was it a dream ? Well! perhaps it was, but I must write down my ideas, and perhaps others may solve the problem. My brain has proved itself incompetent to fathom, as long as my soli- tary mind has to contain what I cannot convince it are not facts. I am unfitted for the every day duties I have to perform, hence I must reveal my secret to someone, and to none can I trust it better than those dumb friends who have been the solace and comfort of my life, my pens, ink and paper. Ah: well. I am the only child of wealthy, though not noble parents, and I was brought up in my happy north country home surrounded by all the luxuries which wealth can obtain, and I was happy-happy, although alone in the world for I was an only child, and having lost my parents before I can remember consequently never, to my knowledge, missed them. The servants who waited on me, loied me, and my governess sp oiled me, and I was happy until I reached my eighteenth birthday. 1 knew I was eighteen then :—Now I know I I am twenty one, a id only for the last few months have I resided at Falconbridge. What became of my nineteenth and twentieth years ? I My friends, i.e. the visitors at the Manor House and my guardian who has just resigned his charge tell me I am twenty-one. I have never had a nineteenth, or a twentieth birthday, but I have had a dream 1 so they tell me it is. I remember my eighteenth birthday, we bad a garden party on the lawn and we were all so happy. I and Alice Morreys wandered by the brook in the coppice and Alice told me of her engagement to Bertie Brand, Ah yes, and she added, By this day twelve months you will be engaged too Isabelle,' and yjt somehow they try to make me believe that I never saw that time, although I remember the dark haired man Alice and I met by the old oak above the boat-house, I see his scrowl now, the same as l saw it on the day long afterwards. Was that a dream ? I was ill, very ill next morning after that birth- day party, and I remember the doctor coming, ■end then all was blank until that dream came, it was this:- I was in a large room very plainly furnished, and another bed like my own was at the furthest end if the room. It was a little hard iron bed- stead, not at all like my own soft bed at home. I got up and dressed in the clothes I found an a chair by my side, bu+ somehow they did not seem like my own clothes, and I was downstairs as I was ready, I tried several doors but could not open them until one opposite to the bottom of the stairs yielded to my touch and I entered, I was about to withdraw seeing several ladies and gentlemen present, but one elderly man stepped forward and addressing me by name as ]Aiss Falconer, asked me to join them. I did s), and for many days and months remained in this house. We walked or drove every day, one elderly lady constiitutingherself my constant companion. So closely did she invariably keep to my side that at length I expressed a wish to take a stroll by my- self. She looked at me wonderingly and remarked "No, my dear; I must always keep you in sight." | This constant supervision became most irksome to me, but I felt a kind of moral influence over me which by some strange power compelled me to act in unison with the other inmates. We daily rose at the same time, breakfasted to- gether, or drove, dined, drank tea, and in fact associated daily by routine. And yet, although I knew well this regularity of iife was as irritating to the nerves of some of m) companions as it was to myself, none seemed to have the power to cast it off, and day after day, and month after month, passed on. Winter came and passed, Christmas had been kept as a festive aeason, and spring was coming. My birthday was in May, but none ever men- tioned the months and I never knew when they commenced or how they ended, and I semed to have no birthday that spring, and summer was over and another Christmas came, and the same routine w"nt on until spring again came, and then I was very ill. About that time the old gentleman who had in- vited me to enter the breakfast room the morning after my arrival, and who had always made most kind enquiries about my health, left the place e.nd a stranger appeared in his room. This I soon learned from the othe: inmates was the new doctor. I was ill about this time, and oh how kind he was to me. How well I loved to see his dark eyes looking down at my litlle bed,and to feel the warm clasp of his friendly hand, for my heart too often beat with a nervous dread that I was not among friends. I knew from the first that he was my friend, though, and I loved him with a blind child- ish devotion. Day after day be came to my room and cheered me with his friendly sympathy and kind speeches,and was it a wonder I got well under his care, too soon to please me, for his visits ceased, his special visits to me, at least. I still daily saw him in the society of the other inmates of the establishment,but his solitude was no longer appropriated by myself alone, and I felt depressed at this change. (To be Continued.)

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