Sleep annihilates time. Was it long or short when I woke like a
man floating up to the surface from tranquil deeps? That I cannot
tell, but once more I possessed myself and every sense was on
guard.
My hearing first. Bare feet were coming, falling softly as
leaves, but unmistakable. There was a dim whispering but I could
hear no word. I rose on my elbow and looked down the long hall.
Nothing. The moonlight lay in pools of light and seas of shadow
on the floor, and the feet drew nearer. Was I afraid? I cannot
tell, but a deep expectation possessed me as the sound grew like
the rustle of grasses parted in a fluttering breeze, and now a
girl came swiftly up the steps, irradiate in the moonlight, and
passing up the hall stood beside me. I could see her robe, her
feet bare from the jungle, but her face wavered and changed and
re- united like the face of a dream woman. I could not fix it for
one moment, yet knew this was the messenger for whom I had waited
all my life - for whom one strange experience, not to be told at
present, had prepared me in early manhood.
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