There were one or two marks of a woman's slender shoe; but it was the
infant feet which impressed me. It flashed upon me what female figure
it was which I had seen flitting away as I approached; now that I
recalled it, I even recognized the tall, slender form, with the slight
stoop of the shoulders, of which I had obtained but a half-glance. I
hastily pursued the path she had taken; but my haste was behind hers by
at least a quarter of an hour.
I realized that I would only lose time by looking for her in those
winding avenues, every one of which might be taking me from instead of
toward the fugitives; so I turned back to the gate and questioned the
keeper if he had seen a tall young woman with a little child pass out
in the last half-hour. He had seen several children and women go out in
that time; and as I could not tell how this particular one was dressed,
I could not arouse his recollection to any certainty on the point.
"She was probably carrying the child," I said; "she had a consumptive
look, and was sad-looking, though her face was doubtless hidden in her
vail."
"It's quite likely," he responded; "mostly the women that do come here
look sad, and many of them keep their vails down. However, it's my
impression there hasn't no child of that age been past here, lately. I
noticed one going in about two o'clock, and if it's _that_ one, she
hasn't come out yet."
So while Mr. Burton sat in the shop in Court street keeping watch, I
sat at the gates of Greenwood; but no Leesy Sullivan came forth; and
when the gates were closed for the night, I was obliged to go away
disappointed.
The girl began to grow some elusive phantom in my mind. I could almost
doubt that there was any such creature, with black, wild eyes and
hectic cheeks, whom I was pursuing; whom I chanced upon in strange
places, at unexpected times, but could never find when I sought
her--who seemed to blend herself in this unwarrantable way with the
tragedy which wrung some other hearts. What had she to do with Henry's
grave? A feeling of dislike, of mortal aversion, grew upon me--I could
not pity her any more--this dark spirit who, having perchance wrought
this irremediable woe, could not now sink into the depths where she
belonged, but must haunt and hover on the edges of my trouble, fretting
me to follow her, only to mock and elude.
Before leaving the cemetery I offered two policemen a hundred dollars
if they should succeed in detaining the woman and child whose
description I gave them, until word could be sent to the office of the
detective-police; and I left them, with another on guard at the gates,
perambulating the grounds, peering into vaults and ghostly places in
search of her. When I got out at the house on Court street, I found my
friend quite tired of eating chestnuts and talking to the little man
behind the counter.
"Well," said he, "the potatoes will be roasted to death before their
owner returns. We have been led another wild-goose chase."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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