Page:The strange experiences of Tina Malone.djvu/86

86 light, till, as if with a laugh at finding that they were wanted and alive, they shone out again with all their old purity.

I had told Tony the picture had made me think of him.

I bought a photograph and hung it on my wall where I could always see it.

And so now these people asked me if he was David and if he was the Miracle Man.

I had called him David because I did not want these people to know he was Tony because Tony had said this Invisible Friend was not he. It was always confused, that idea of who it was.

Tony used to come and we had our little afternoon tea together but I always had to tell him that Patrick was there.

"Oh, bother Patrick," he said and turned his shoulder to me for a moment, looking annoyed.

I used to think the voices followed Tony when he left, sometimes because things would be much more quiet.

But nearly every Sunday, just as he had gone I found my eyes filling with tears and a feeling as if I must cry.

There was someone in trouble somewhere near me I was sure. Every Sunday it happened just as Tony left.

I often wondered.

Then one day I heard the newspaper boys calling about the trial of a tragedy that had occurred.

I bought the paper and my heart began to beat and a feeling of preplexedperplexed [sic] wonder came to me.

It was the case of a woman who had shot a man in a moment of madness.

As I read the date of the tragedy, I saw that it was on one of those days when I was so strangely made to feel I must not move and stayed all day long on my bed and in a corner of the sofa afraid to stir in case I should hurt someone.

Something made me think that the person in trouble who made me cry when Tony left me was that woman.

Then one Sunday the tears turned to sobs and I found myself on my knees crying as if my heart would break.

And then the thought came to me that I would send that woman something to comfort her, something to let her know on the day of the trial that there was someone who knew and understood.

I looked round my bookcase and found a tiny Longfellow—Longfellow, I knew, was so full of strength and comfort for those who had to find strength to bear their trouble—I thought of "Light of Stars" and the verse—

"And thou too, whosoe'er thou art That readest this brief psalm As one by one thy hopes depart Be resolute and calm.