The Ghost of Guir House

Nerveless and dispirited he returned to the garden gate. Some one had

been there since he had passed, for there were fresh foot-prints

along the walk, of a small, feminine type, and directed toward the

forest. The steps had passed outward, and their track was lost in the

leaves beyond. Surely Dorothy had left the house and gone for a

ramble in the woods without having seen him. How could he have missed

her, and could it have been intentional, were thoughts which came

unpleasantly to Paul at that moment. He stood gazing long and

earnestly in the direction taken by the departing footsteps, and

doing so, his attention was attracted by the flight of a bird which

came swooping towards him from the depths of the woodland glade.

Nearer and nearer it came, uttering a strange, shrill cry, as if to

attract his attention; and then, after circling in the air above his

head, came fluttering down, and lighted upon the gate-post at his

elbow. It was Dorothy's parrot. But what did it mean by this unusual

freak of familiarity? Paul spoke to the bird, which pleased it; and

when he put out his hand to smooth its feathers, the parrot lifted

its wings, and with a loud cackle exhibited a note which had been

carefully tied beneath one of them. Henley relieved the animal of its

burden, and discovered that the note was addressed to himself. When

he looked around again, the parrot had flown away. This is what the

note contained: GUIR HOUSE.

MY OWN DEAR COMRADE--I call you my own because you are all that I

ever had, but even now the memory of our few brief interviews is

all that is left to me, for I must go without you. So happy was I

when we first met, that I don't mind telling you, since we shall

not meet again, how, in anticipation, I rested in your dear arms

and felt your loving caresses; for you were all the world to me

then--the only world I had ever known--and the break of day seemed

close at hand. But soon the thought of drawing you down into that

awful abyss 'twixt heaven and earth, which has whirled its black

shadows about me for more than a century, seized me, and I could

not willingly make a thrall of the one I loved; and so I leave you

to those for whom you are fitted, while I shall continue my

solitary life as before. You say that you are lonely without me!

But what is your loneliness to mine? I, who never had a comrade;

who never felt the joy of friendship; and who was dazed with the

sudden flush of love, of hunger satisfied, of companionship! Have

you ever felt the want of these, dear Paul? Have you ever known

what it is to be alone--to live in an empty world--and that, not

for a time, but for ages? Yes, you will say, you understand it, and

that you pity me, and yet you do not know its meaning; for you at

least can live out the life for which God and nature have fitted

you, while I am fit for nothing. You know not what it is to be

shunned; to be avoided; to be feared! You go your way, and smile

and nod to those you meet, and they are pleased to see you. You are

welcome among your friends, as they to you. Live on in that

precious state, and feel blessed and happy, for there are worse

conditions, although you know it not.