Her own Way by Eglanton Thorne

MRS. TRACY came downstairs on the morning after Juliet's departure looking white and weary. Hannah and Salome were wont to sit down to breakfast punctually at a quarter before eight. Hannah liked to have ample leisure for her preparations ere she departed for the high school, where she presented herself about nine o'clock, and Salome was always glad to begin her housekeeping duties at as early an hour as possible. While Juliet attended the school, Mrs. Tracy had striven-not always successfully-to appear at the early meal; but since Juliet's schooldays ended, that young lady had positively declined to get up early, and she and her mother had fallen into the habit of breakfasting together some time after the two sisters had left the table.

But on this morning, although her head ached sorely, Mrs. Tracy was possessed by a feeling of restlessness which made it impossible to remain in bed, and, to her daughters' surprise, she came into the breakfast room soon after the first gong had sounded.

"Why, mother! " exclaimed Salome. "Whatever has made you get up so early? I meant to bring you your breakfast presently. Do you think you were wise to do so? You are not looking well."

"I do not feel well," said Mrs. Tracy. "I have had a wretched night, but I felt obliged to get up; I was so weary of lying still and worrying. Has the post come?"

"The postman never arrives till after eight o'clock, and it wants ten minutes to the hour yet," said Hannah. "What can you have found to worry about?"

"Oh, I hardly know! I am very foolish. I suppose it was Juliet's going away that upset me. I had such wretched dreams about her. You remember-you must often have heard me speak of the time we lost Juliet when she was a little child in India. It was through the carelessness of her ayah. The woman must have left her for some time, though she vowed she had only turned her back for a moment. Anyhow, the child strayed from her, and wandered out of the compound into the jungle. I shall never forget how I felt when they told me she was lost.

"I knew the jungle was full of wild beasts, and I thought I should never see my child again; I pictured her sweet little body all mangled and bleeding. I thought I should have lost my senses. It seemed to me an eternity that I endured that suspense, but within an hour, she was found chasing butterflies on the edge of a swamp, and they brought her to me smiling and unscathed. Well, do you know, I lived through that again in my dream. I thought Juliet was my little one still, and she was lost and in deadly peril; but there was no happy ending. They came and told me that she had been carried off by a tiger, and I should never see her again. I was in an agony. I woke screaming and bathed in perspiration. You cannot think what a horrid dream it was, it seemed so real."

"It must have been a horrid dream indeed," said Salome, her voice a trifle unsteady, for the simple, pathetic way in which her mother had told the dream had touched her, although she was not of an emotional nature.

But Hannah only said, "What did you take for supper, mother, to give you such a nightmare? Depend upon it, indigestion was the cause of that trouble."

"My dear, you know that I never eat suppers. I do not believe that indigestion had anything to do with it. The dream came, I suppose, because I was anxious about Juliet; even now, I cannot get rid of the impression it left on my mind. I shall feel easier when I have heard from her."

"Really, mother, do you imagine that your dream is prophetic? " said Hannah, with a laugh. "Since there are no tigers at large in England, you need hardly distress yourself with the idea that Juliet has been carried off by one."

Mrs. Tracy tried to join in the laugh, but there were tears in her eyes. The arrival of the postman was a welcome relief.

"Here you are, mother," said Hannah, as she distributed the letters; "the tiger has not carried Juliet away yet; or, at least, she was able to write a postcard before he despatched her."

Mrs. Tracy took the card eagerly.

"Folkestone Station," she read aloud-

"Have arrived here safely, and all so far well. Will write in a day or two. -

"Your-

"JULIET."

"Fancy her staying to scribble that at the station! " she said. "It was good of the child. She knew I should want to hear as soon as possible."

"Here is a letter for Juliet," said Salome. "If you can tell me the address, mother, I will re-direct it, and get Hannah to post it as she goes to school."