The Argosy — page 178: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

162 Anne Hereford. ae Anos I did not answer; I did not cry ; all tears seemed scared away then. It was a confirmation of my secret, inward fears, and my face turned white. ‘What was that you said to me about the Keppe-Carews never dying without a warning? And I laughed at you! Do you remember? Anne, I think the warning came to me last night.” I glanced timidly round the room. It was a luxurious bed-chamber, costly furniture and pretty toilette trifles everywhere. The crimson silk curtains were drawn closely before the bay-window, and I could see Selina clearly in the semi-light. ‘Your mamma told you she had a dream, Anne. Well, J have had a dream. And yet I feel sure it was not a dream, but reality, reality. She appeared to me last night.” “'Whoe Mamma pe” ‘Your mamma. The Carew superstition is, that when one is going to die, the last relative, whether near or distant, who has been taken from them by death, comes again to give them notice that their own departure is near. Ursula was the last who went, and she came to me in the night.” “Tt can’t be true,” I sobbed, shivering from head to foot. ‘She stood there, in the faint rays of the shaded lamp,” pursued Selina, not so much as listening to me. ‘‘I have not really slept all night ; I have been in that semi-conscious, dozing state when the mind is awake both to dreams and to reality, knowing not which is which. Just as the clock struck two I awoke partially from one of these semi- dreams, and I saw your mamma at the foot of the bed—a shadowy sort of figure and face, but I knew it for Ursula’s. She just looked at me and said, ‘Selina!’ Then I woke up thoroughly—the name, the sound of her well-remembered voice ringing in my ears.” ‘‘ And seeing her ?” I eagerly asked. “No. Seeing nothing but the opening between the curtains at the foot of the bed and the door beyond it ; nothing more than is to be seen now.” ‘“‘Then, Selina, it was a dream after all ?” ‘“In one sense, yes. The world would call it so. To me it was something more. A minute afterwards the clock struck two, and I was as wide awake as I am now.” The reaction came, and I burst into tears. ‘Selina! it was a dream ; it could only have been a dream !”” ‘“*T should no doubt think so, Anne, but for what you told me of your mamma’s warning. But for hearing that, I might never have remem- bered that such a thing is said to follow the Keppe-Carews.” What with remorse for having told her, though charged by my mother to do it, and what with my own fears, I could not speak for hysterical sobbing. comicaooks GO)