Stranica 184 [184]
136
about us, and even if we dream, words
which are really spoken, or sounds which
really exist at the moment, accommodate
themselves with surprising readiness to
our visions, until reality and imagination
pecome so strangely blended that it is
afterwards almost a matter of impossibility
to separate the two. Nor is this the most
striking phenomenon incidental to such a
state. It is an ascertained fact, that
although our senses of touch and sight
be for the time dead, yet our sleeping
thoughts, and the visionary scenes that
before us, will be influenced, and
materially influenced, by the mere silent
presence of some external object which
may not have been near us when we
closed our eyes, and of whose vicinity we
have had no waking consciousness.
Oliver knew perfectly well that he was
in his own little room, that his books were
lying on the table before him, and that the
sweet air was stirring among the creeping
plants outside, —and yet he was asleep.
Suddenly the scene changed, the air be¬
came close and confined, and he thought
with a glow of terror that he was in the
Jew’s house again. There sat the hideous
old man in his accustomed corner pointing
at him, and whispering to another man
with his face averted, who sat beside him,
c Hush, my dear!” he thought he heard
the Jew say; "it is him, sure enough.
Come away.”
“He!” the other man seemed to an¬
swer; “could I mistake him, think you?
If a crowd of devils were to put themselves
them, there is something that would tell
me how to point him out. If you buried
him fifty feet deep, and took me across his
grave, I should know, if there wasn’t a
Wither his flesh, I should!”
The man seemed to say this with such
dreadful hatred, that Oliver awoke with
the fear and started up.
Good God! what was that which sent
the blood tingling to his heart, and de¬
prived him of voice or power to move!
‘There—tbere—at the window—close be¬
fore him—so close, that he could have al¬
most touched him before he started back—
with his eyes peering into the room, and
meeting his—there stood the Jew !— and
beside him, white with rage, or fear, or
both, were the scowling features of the
very man who had accosted him at the
mon yard!
before his eyes, and they were gone. But
they had recognised him, and he them, and
their look was as firmly impressed upon
his memory as if it had been deeply carved
in stone, and set before him from his birth.
He stood transfixed for a moment, and
then, leaping from the window into the
garden, called loudly for help.
CHAPTER THE TWELFTH,
Containing the unsatisfactory result of Oliver's
adventure, and a conversation of some import¬
ance between Harry Maylie and Rose.
WHEN the inmates of the house, attract¬
ed by Oliver’s cries, hurried to the spot
from which they proceeded, they found
him, pale and agitated, pointing in the
direction of the meadows behind the house,
and scarcely able to articulate the words
“The Jew! the Jew!”
Mr. Giles was at a loss to comprehend
what this outcry meant; but Harry May¬
lie, whose perceptions were something
quicker, and who had heard Oliver’s his- .
tory from his mother, understood it at once,
“What direction did he take?” he
asked, catching up a heavy stick which
was standing in a corner.
“That,” replied Oliver, pointing out
the course the men had taken. “I missed
them all in an instant.”
“Then they are in the ditch!” said
Harry. ‘Follow, and keep as near me as
ou can.” So saying he sprang over the
edge, and darted off with a speed which
rendered it matter of exceeding difficulty
for the others to keep near him.
Giles followed as well as he could, and
Oliver followed too, and in the course of a
minute or two, Mr. Losberne, who had
been out walking, and just then returned,
tumbled over the hedge after them, and
picking himself up with more agility than
he could have been sup to possess,
struck into the same course at no con¬
temptible speed, shouting all the while
most prodigiously to know what was the
matter.
On they all went; nor stopped they
once to breathe until the leader, striking
Oliver, began to search narrowly the ditch
and hedge adjoining, which aficrded time
for the remainder of the party to come up,
and for Oliver to communicate to Mr.
Losberne the circumstances that had led
to so vigorous a pursuit.
The search was all in vain. There
were not even the traces of recent foot¬
steps to be seen. ‘They stood now on the
summit of a little hill, commanding the