Christmas stories, English; Holidays -- Fiction; Short stories
Or, a friend of somebody’s whom most of us know, when he was a young man
at college, had a particular friend, with whom he made the compact that,
if it were possible for the Spirit to return to this earth after its
separation from the body, he of the twain who first died, should reappear
to the other. In course of time, this compact was forgotten by our
friend; the two young men having progressed in life, and taken diverging
paths that were wide asunder. But, one night, many years afterwards, our
friend being in the North of England, and staying for the night in an
inn, on the Yorkshire Moors, happened to look out of bed; and there, in
the moonlight, leaning on a bureau near the window, steadfastly regarding
him, saw his old college friend! The appearance being solemnly
addressed, replied, in a kind of whisper, but very audibly, “Do not come
near me. I am dead. I am here to redeem my promise. I come from
another world, but may not disclose its secrets!” Then, the whole form
becoming paler, melted, as it were, into the moonlight, and faded away.
Or, there was the daughter of the first occupier of the picturesque
Elizabethan house, so famous in our neighbourhood. You have heard about
her? No! Why, _She_ went out one summer evening at twilight, when she
was a beautiful girl, just seventeen years of age, to gather flowers in
the garden; and presently came running, terrified, into the hall to her
father, saying, “Oh, dear father, I have met myself!” He took her in his
arms, and told her it was fancy, but she said, “Oh no! I met myself in
the broad walk, and I was pale and gathering withered flowers, and I
turned my head, and held them up!” And, that night, she died; and a
picture of her story was begun, though never finished, and they say it is
somewhere in the house to this day, with its face to the wall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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