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Their faces were transfigured, their eyes had the look of sleep-walkers, they moved as through another world. They had only one observer, and to Miss Marley the sight of them was like the sight of those unknowingly condemned to die. St. Moritz in general was not observant. It had gossips, but it did not know the difference between true and false, temporary and permanent.
The oddest thing about it was that the sleep-walkers all stopped their pulling and hauling a moment, and each man reached down to the little slot alongside of his berth and handed over his ticket. Then they took hold and began pulling and hauling again. I suppose the conductor asked what the matter was; but I couldn't hear him, and I couldn't make out exactly what he did say.
Those in the rear hailed it with acclaim. In the windless air it burned easily, and he led the way more quickly. "It's a sure stampede," Shorty decided. "Or might all them be sleep-walkers?" "We're at the head of the procession at any rate," was Smoke's answer. "Oh, I don't know. Mebbe that's a firefly ahead there. Mebbe they're all fireflies that one, an' that one. Look at 'em!
We were straining for it, but the snow clogged us, and our enemies were very close behind. Then I was awakened by a figure at my side. 'Get ready, my lord, it said; 'it is the hour to ride. Like sleep-walkers we moved into the sharp air. Hussin led us out of an old postern and then through a place like an orchard to the shelter of some tall evergreen trees.
He had once heard it said, that sleep-walkers always threw themselves down when they heard their names spoken; this statement now recurred to his mind, and he forbore from calling out to her. Once more the unhappy woman waved him off; his very heart stopped beating, for her movements were wild and vehement, and he could see that the stone which she was holding on by shifted its place.
I found that they supposed me to be walking in my sleep, a practice to which I was somewhat addicted; and not seeing why sleep-walkers should not direct their course to the cupboard as well as anywhere else, I boldly seized a loaf and commenced an attack upon it. "Let us wait and see what she will do," whispered Mammy.
I left my room the next morning with a vague hope that I should find the manuscript somewhere in the study; that, in my own trance, I might have secreted it, as sleep-walkers are said to secrete things, without remembrance of their acts in their waking state. I searched minutely in every conceivable place. Strahan found me still employed in that hopeless task.
The associate motions continue; but their first link is not excited into action by volition, or by external stimuli. In all respects, except those above mentioned, the three last sensorial powers are somewhat increased in energy during the suspension of volition, owing to the consequent accumulation of the spirit of animation. Various degrees of reverie. 2. Sleep-walkers. Case of a young lady.
Flowers only can understand flower-speech, the stars the language of the spheres, one pillar of Memnon answers another, the dead comprehend the Walkyrie, sleep-walkers the speech of the moon lovers only the language of love. And he who has ever known this sacred emotion will not profane it, but guard it like a secret of the confessional.
Then, for God's sake, as you would save, do not stir from beside me! They at length prevailed upon her to lie down upon the bed, where she continued to urge them to stay by her. She frequently uttered incoherent sentences, repeating again and again, 'The dead and the living cannot be one God has forbidden it! and then again, 'Rest to the wakeful sleep to the sleep-walkers.
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