Alas! I have paid for my happiness--it was written, it had to be. I have
lived through a night that cannot be described. Seraphine's prophetic
words have come true. Horror! Terror! I cannot bear it any longer. It is
quite impossible for me to bear it any longer. I have sent for
Seraphine, begging her to come to me at once--this afternoon, this
evening, any time tonight, before I sleep again. I would sooner die than
endure another such night.
* * * * *
_Saturday morning._
Seraphine did not get my note until late, but in spite of a snow-storm,
she came to me and stayed all night. Dear Seraphine! She spends her life
helping and comforting people in distress. She sees nothing but trouble
from morning till night, yet she is always cheerful and jolly. She says
God wants her to laugh and grow fat, so she does.
We talked for hours and I told her everything--or nearly everything.
There is only one abominable memory that I can never tell to anyone, I
may write it some day in the red leather volume of my diary that is
locked with a key and that must be burned before I die. I told
Seraphine how I was suddenly awakened Thursday night by a horrible
feeling that there was a _presence_ near me in my bedroom. Then I slept
again and saw myself all in white lying on the ground surrounded by a
circle of black birds with hateful red eyes--fiery eyes. These birds
came nearer and nearer and I knew I was suffering horribly as I lay
there, yet I looked on calmly without a shred of sympathy for myself; in
fact I felt only amused contempt when I saw the dream image of poor
Penelope start up from the ground with a scream of fright.
While I opened my heart Seraphine sat silent, watching me like a loving
mother. Several times she touched my arm protectingly, and once her gaze
swept quickly down my skirt, then up again, as if she saw something
moving.
"What is it? What do you see?" I asked, but she did not tell me.
When I had finished she kissed me tenderly and said she was so glad I
had let her come to me in my distress. She told me there was a great and
immediate danger hanging over me, but that God's infinite love would
protect and heal me, as it protects all His children, if I would learn
to draw upon it.
I asked what this danger was and Seraphine said it would strike at me
very soon through a dark-haired woman; but she would try to help me, if
I would heed her warnings. I don't know why but I immediately thought of
Roberta Vallis, and the strange part of it is that within an hour,
Roberta called me on the telephone to say she was coming up right away.
Roberta and Seraphine had not seen each other for years, not since that
night when Seraphine made her prophecy about me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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