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Page 17
As she did so a wild desire to fly from the room and the house came over
Miss Ludington. Not that she did not long inexpressibly to see the vision
that was drawing near, whose beautiful feet might even now be on the
threshold, but the sense of its awfulness overcame her. She felt that she
was not fit, not ready, for it now. If she could only have more time to
prepare herself, and then could come again. But it was too late to draw
back.
Dr. Hull had arranged three chairs across the broad doorway between the
back and front parlours, and facing the former. He asked Miss Ludington
to occupy the middle chair, and, trembling in every limb, she did so.
Paul took the chair by her side, the other being apparently for Dr. Hull.
The elfish little girl, whom they called Alta, and who appeared to be the
daughter of Mrs. Legrand, meanwhile took her place at a piano standing in
the front parlour.
All being now ready, Dr. Hull proceeded to turn the gas in the two
parlours very low. The jets in both rooms were controlled by a stop-cock
in the wall by the side of the doorway between them. There were two jets
in the back parlour, fastened to the wall dividing it from the front
parlour, one on each side of the door, so as to throw light on any figure
coming out of the cabinet. The light they diffused, after being turned
down; was enough to render forms and faces sufficiently visible for the
recognition of acquaintances, though a close study of features would have
been difficult.
It now appeared that the glass shades of the jets in the back parlour
were of a bluish tint, which lent a peculiarly weird effect to the
illumination.
Dr. Hull now took the remaining chair by Miss Ludington's side, and a
perfect silence of some moments ensued, during which she could perfectly
hear the beating of Paul's heart. Then Alta began, with a wonderfully
soft touch, to play a succession of low, dreamy chords, rather than any
set composition--music that thrilled the listeners with vague suggestions
of the unfathomable mystery and unutterable sadness of human life. She
played on and on. It seemed to two of the hearers that she played for
hours, although it was probably but a few minutes.
At last the music flowed slower, trickled, fell in drops, and ceased.
They had a sensation of being breathed upon by a faint, cool draught of
air, and then appeared in the door-way of the cabinet the figure of a
beautiful girl, which, after standing still a moment, glided forth, by an
imperceptible motion, into the room.
The light, which had before seemed so faint, now proved sufficient to
bring out every line of her face and form. Or was it that the figure
itself was luminous by some light from within?
Paul heard Miss Ludington gasp; but if he had known that she was dying he
could not have taken his eyes from the apparition.
For it was Ida who stood before him; no counterfeit of the painter now,
but radiant with life.
Her costume was exactly that of her picture, white, with a low bodice;
but how utterly had the artist failed to reproduce the ravishing contours
of her young form, the enchanting sweetness of her expression. The golden
hair fell in luxuriant tresses about the face and down the dazzling
shoulders. The lips were parted in a pleased smile as, with a gliding
motion, she approached the rapt watchers.
Her eyes rested on Miss Ludington with a look full of recognition and a
tenderness that seemed beyond the power of mortal eyes to express.
Then she looked at Paul. Her smile was no longer the smile of an angel,
but of a woman. The light of her violet eyes burned like delicious flame
to the marrow of his bones.
She was so near him that he could have touched her. Her beauty overcame
his senses. Forgetting all else, in an agony of love, he was about to
clasp her in his arms, but she drew back with a gentle gesture of denial.
Then a sudden and indescribable wavering passed over her face, like the
passing of the wind over a field of rye, and slowly, as if reluctantly
obeying an unseen attraction, she retreated, still facing them, across
the room, and disappeared within the cabinet,
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