The fourth story from The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers, originally published in 1895.

The book is a collection of short stories in the genre of weird fiction, strange tales with slightly morbid tendencies. It inspired authors like H. P. Lovecraft in their works.

The text in full can be found on Project Gutenberg.

The King in Yellow, (4) The Yellow Sign

“Let the red dawn surmise
What we shall do,
When this blue starlight dies
And all is through.”

I

There are so many things which are impossible to explain! Why should certain chords in music make me think of the brown and golden tints of autumn foliage? Why should the Mass of Sainte Cécile bend my thoughts wandering among caverns whose walls blaze with ragged masses of virgin silver? What was it in the roar and turmoil of Broadway at six o’clock that flashed before my eyes the picture of a still Breton forest where sunlight filtered through spring foliage and Sylvia bent, half curiously, half tenderly, over a small green lizard, murmuring: “To think that this also is a little ward of God!”