CHAPTER XV.
THE YOUNG VISIONARY.
Meeting with a public conveyance, the doctor got into it with Billetand Pitou, and they went to Louis-the-Great College, where Sebastianwas still in the sick ward.
The principal received the doctor with deep regard as he knew him tobe the foremost pupil of the physicians and chemists, Cabanis andCondorcet.
He imparted his fears, as well to the doctor as to the parent of hispupil, that the boy was too much given to moody fits.
"You are right," said Gilbert, "gravity in a boy is a token of lunacyor weakness."
While Pitou was being refreshed in the principal's residence and Billetshared a bottle with the gentleman himself, the physician conferredwith his son.
"I ask you about your health," said the father to the pallid, nervousyouth, "and you answer that you are well. Now I ask you if your reservetowards your schoolfellows arises from pride and I hope you willanswer, no."
"Be encouraged, father," said Sebastian, "It is neither pride nor illhealth, but sorrow. I have a dream which frightens me and yet it is nota terror. When a little boy, I had such visions."
"Ah?"
"Two or three times I was lost in the woods, following this phantom."
Gilbert looked at the speaker in alarm.
"It was thus, father dear: I would be playing with the other childrenof the village when I saw nothing; but when I left them, I heard therustle of a silk dress as if some one wearing it were going away fromme; I would thrust out my hands to seize it but grasp nothing butair. But as the sound diminished, the vision appeared, more and moredistinct. This cloudy vapor would gradually assume a human shape. Itwas a woman's, who glided rather than walked, and grew the more clearas it was buried in the woody depths.
"A strange, weird, irresistible spell drew me on in the woman's steps.I pursued her with extended arms, mute like she was. Often I tried tocall her but my lips would not emit a sound; I pursued without everovertaking, until the prodigy announcing her coming was reproduced forher departure. She became misty and faded away. Spent with weariness, Iwould drop on the sward, where she had disappeared. Pitou would find methere, sometimes not till the following day."
Gilbert looked at the youth with increasing disquiet. His fingerswere fixed on his pulse. Sebastian seemed to understand his father'sfeelings.
"Do not be uneasy about it," said he; "I know that it is a phantasm."
"What did this woman look like?"
"Majestic as a queen."
"Have you seen her lately?"
"I have seen her here--that is, in the garden reserved for theteachers. I saw her glide from our grounds into that garden. And oneday when Master Berardier, pleased with my composition, asked me tostate a favor, I got leave to stroll in this garden. She appeared tome."
"Strange hallucination," thought Gilbert; "yet not so remarkable in thechild of a mesmeric medium. Who do you think this woman is?"
"My mother."
Gilbert turned pale and clasped his hand to his heart as though tostaunch a re-opening wound. "But this is all a dream and I am almost ascrazed as you."
"It may be all a dream," said the youth with pensive eye, "butthe reality of the dream exists. I have seen the lady alive, in amagnificent equipage drawn by four horses, in Satory Woods nearVersailles, on the last holiday when we were taken out there. I nearlyswooned on seeing her, I do not know why. For she could not be mymother, who is dead, and she is the same as the vision."
He remarked the giddiness of his father who ran his hand over his brow,and he was frightened by his white face.
"I see I am wrong to tell you such nonsense," he said.
"Oh, no, speak all you can on the subject and we shall try to cureyou," responded the doctor.
"Why? I am born to musing: it takes up half my time. I love this ghostthough it avoids me and seems sometimes to repulse me. Do not expel it:I should else be all alone when you are on your travels or return toAmerica."
"I hope we shall not part," he said to his boy whom he embraced: "for Iwant to take you on my journeys."
"Was my mother fair?" inquired the youth.
"Very," was answered in the doctor's stifled voice.
"And did she love you as much as I do?" continued the child.
"Sebastian, never speak her name to me!" cried the physician, kissinghim a last time and bounding out of the garden.
Instead of following him, the boy dropped on a bench, disconsolate.
In the yard Gilbert found Billet and Pitou, refreshed by the feast ofthe principal, to whom the doctor recommended special care of his son,and the three men got into the hack again.