27 chapters
5 hour read
Selected Chapters
27 chapters
THE OAK PARLOR.
THE OAK PARLOR.
Nevertheless, I was so tired of the biting storm that I involuntarily stopped before the decayed and forbidding structure, and was, in truth, withdrawing my foot from the stirrup, when I heard an unexpected exclamation behind me, and turning, saw a chaise, from the open front of which leaned a gentleman of most attractive appearance. "What are you going to do?" he asked. "Hide my head from the storm," was my hurried rejoinder. "I am tired, and so is my horse, and the town, according to all appea
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
BURRITT.
BURRITT.
All was quiet in the halls, but as I proceeded toward their room I perceived a figure standing near the doorway, which, in another moment, I saw to be that of Burritt. He was trembling like a leaf, and was bent forward, listening. "Hush!" he whispered; "they are talking. All seems to be right. I just heard him call her darling." I drew the man away and took his place. Yes; they were talking in subdued but not unkindly tones. I heard him bid her be composed, and caught, as I thought, a light repl
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
A FEARFUL DISCOVERY.
A FEARFUL DISCOVERY.
I imagine so now, and tremble. I did not anticipate ever adding a line to the words I had written. The impulse which had led me to put upon paper my doubts concerning the two Urquharts soon passed, and as nothing ever occurred to recall this couple to my mind, I gradually allowed their name and memory to vanish from my thoughts, only remembering them when chance led me into the oak parlor. Then, in deed, I recollected their manner and my fears, and then I also felt repeated, though every time wi
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
Never have I felt such relief as when, upon my resuscitation, I remembered that I had put upon paper all the events and all the suspicions which had troubled me during that fatal night of January the 28th, sixteen years before. With that in my possession, I could confront any suspicion which might arise, and it was this thought which lent to my bearing at this unhappy time a dignity and self-possession which evidently surprised the two gentlemen. "You seem more shocked than astonished," was Mr.
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
AN INTERIM OF SUSPENSE.
AN INTERIM OF SUSPENSE.
And so a grave is being dug in the garden, where, at the darkest hour of night, the remains of the sweet and gentle bride are to be placed without tablet or mound. Meanwhile do there hide in any part of this wicked world two hearts which throb with unusual terrors this night? Or does there pass across the mirror of a guilty memory any unusual shapes of horror prognostic of detection and coming punishment? It would comfort my uneasy heart to know; for the spirit of vengeance has seized upon me, a
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE RECLUSE.
THE RECLUSE.
Respected Madam : Appreciating your anxiety, I hasten to give you the particulars of an interview which I have just had with a person who knew Edwin Urquhart. They must be acceptable to you, and I shall make no excuse for the length of my communication, knowing that each detail in the lives of the three persons connected with this crime must be of interest to one who has brooded upon the subject as long as you have. The person to whom I allude is a certain Mark Felt, a most eccentric and unhappy
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
TWO WOMEN.
TWO WOMEN.
"You want to hear about Edwin Urquhart. Well, you shall, but first I promise you that I shall talk much less of him than of another person. Why? because it is on account of this other person that I hate him, and solely because of this other person that I avenge myself, or seek to assist others in avenging the justice you say he has outraged. "We were friends from boyhood. Reared in the same town and under the same influences, there was a community of interests between us that threw us together a
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
A SUDDEN BETROTHAL.
A SUDDEN BETROTHAL.
"As for myself," continued Mark Felt, "I stood crushed, and after the first torrent of emotion had swept by, lifted my head like a drowning man and looked wildly about, as if, in the catastrophe which overwhelmed me, all nature must have changed, and I should find myself in a strange place. The sight of the door through which Marah Leighton had passed stung me into tortured existence again. With a roar of passion and hate I sprang toward it, burst it open, and passed in. Instantly silence and se
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
MARAH.
MARAH.
"Great heaven! why had I not noticed Miss Dudleigh before! In her changed face, and in the wasting of her delicate form, I saw that my fears were not all vain, inasmuch as they were shared by her; and shocked at evidences so much beyond my expectations, I knew not whether to shed the bitter tears which rose to my eyes in pity for her or in rage for myself. "We were sitting all together, and I had a full opportunity to observe the mournful smile that now and then crossed her lips as Marah uttered
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
AT THE FOOT OF THE STAIRS.
AT THE FOOT OF THE STAIRS.
"'You think I am playing with you,' she murmured. 'I am not. I have sickened of these nuptials and am going back. If you want to, you may kill me where I sit. You carry a dagger, I know; one more red blossom will not show on my breast. Give it to me if you will, but turn the horses.' "She meant it, however much my lost heart might cry out for its happiness and honor. Leaning forward, I told the pompous driver that Miss Leighton had been taken very ill, and bade him drive back; and then with the
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
HONORA.
HONORA.
"But I did not pass it. A sound struck my ear. It was that of a smothered sob, and it came from the room where I had first seen Miss Dudleigh. Instantly a vision of that sweet form bowed in misery struck upon my still palpitating heart; and moved at a grief I knew to be well nigh as bitter as my own, I stopped before the half-closed door, and gently pushed it open. "Miss Dudleigh at once advanced to meet me. Tears were on her cheeks, but she walked very firmly, and took my hand with an inquiry i
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
EDWIN URQUHART.
EDWIN URQUHART.
"I drew back," he said, "and clenched my hands to keep myself from strangling Urquhart. Then I broke into hurried pants, that subsided gradually into words of perplexity and amazement as I met his eye, and realized that it contained nothing but a rude sort of sympathy and good fellowship. "'How? Why? What do you mean by coming back?' I cried. 'You said you would be gone a week. You swore—' "A gay laugh interrupted me. "'And must a man keep every oath he makes, especially when it separates him fr
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
BEFORE THE WEDDING.
BEFORE THE WEDDING.
"Two weeks after this I was sitting beside my solitary hearth, musing upon my misery and longing for the blessed relief of sleep. There was no one with me in the house. I had dismissed every servant; for I would have no spies about me, prying into my misery; and though I could not keep the world of men and women from my doors, I could at least refuse to admit them; and this I did—living the life of a recluse almost as much as I do here, but with less ease, because the wind would bring whispers,
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
A CASSANDRA AT THE GATE.
A CASSANDRA AT THE GATE.
"Miss Dudleigh, moved, perhaps, by the unpleasant eclat which had followed the broken-off marriage of her cousin, chose to celebrate her own wedding in her own house, and with as little ceremony as possible. Only her most intimate friends, therefore, were invited, but these were numerous enough to fill the halls and most of the lower rooms. "When I entered there was a sudden cessation of conversation; but this I had expected. If anything could add to the interest of the occasion, certainly it wa
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE CATASTROPHE.
THE CATASTROPHE.
"When we became positively assured that Miss Leighton had disappeared from the house and would not be on hand to take the stage to Sche nectady, the excitement, which had been increasing on all sides since the ceremony, culminated, and the whole town was set agog to find her, if only to solve the mystery of a nature whose actions had now become inexplicable. "I was the first to start the pursuit. Haunted by her last look, and thrilled to every extremity by the terror of the shriek she had uttere
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
A DREAM ENDED.
A DREAM ENDED.
There was silence in the cave. Mark Felt's story was at an end. For a moment I sat and watched him; then, as I realized all that I must yet gather from his lips, I broke the stillness by saying, in my lowest and most suggestive tone, these two words: "And Marah?" The name did not seem unwelcome. Striking his breast, he cried: "She lies here! Though she despised me, deceived me, broke my heart in life, and in death betrayed a devotion for another that was at once my dishonor and the downfall of m
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
STRANGE GUESTS.
STRANGE GUESTS.
Two excitements to-day. First, the appearance at my doors of the person of whose coming I was advised by Mr. Tamworth. He came in his own carriage, and is a meager, hatchet-faced man, whose eye makes me restless, but has not succeeded in making me lose my self-possession. He stayed three hours, all of which he made me spend with him in the oak parlor, and when he had finished with me and got my signature to a long and complicated affidavit, I felt that I would rather sell my house and flee the p
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
MRS. TRUAX TALKS.
MRS. TRUAX TALKS.
"A ghost!" I cried, for the moment quite aghast. "Yes," was the reply; "it has the look of a house which could boast of such a luxury. Don't you think so, Mr. Westgate?" This is a newcomer who had just been introduced. "Well," observed the latter, "as I have seen only this room, and as this room is anything but ghostlike at the present moment, I hardly consider myself competent to judge." "But the exterior! Surely you noticed the exterior. Such a rambling old structure; such a beetling top to it
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
IN THE HALLS AT MIDNIGHT.
IN THE HALLS AT MIDNIGHT.
I was not mistaken. Madame is not only interested in, but has serious designs upon the oak parlor. Not content with roaming up and down the hallway leading to it, she was detected yesterday morning trying to open its door, and when politely questioned as to whom she was seeking, answered that she was looking for the sitting room, which, by the way, is on the other side of the house. And this is not all. As I lay in my bed last night resting as only a weary woman can rest, I heard a light tap at
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE STONE IN THE GARDEN.
THE STONE IN THE GARDEN.
This morning the post brought two letters for my strange guests. Being anxious to see how they would be received, I carried them up to Madame Letellier's room myself. The ladies were sitting together, the daughter embroidering. At the sight of the letters in my hand they both rose, the daughter reaching me first. "Let me have them!" she cried, a glad, bright color showing for a moment on her cheek. "From your father?" asked the mother, in a tone of nonchalance that did not deceive me. The girl s
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
IN THE OAK PARLOR.
IN THE OAK PARLOR.
I answered at first—"No." Then I appeared to bethink me, and told her, with seeming reluctance, that there was one room below which I sometimes opened to guests, but that just now it was in such a state of dilapidation I had shut it up till I could find the opportunity of repairing it. "Oh!" she replied, subduing her eagerness to the proper point, "you need not wait for that. We are not particular persons. Only let me see the roses come back to my daughter's cheeks, and I can bear any amount of
34 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
A SURPRISE FOR HONORA.
A SURPRISE FOR HONORA.
"Mrs.—" "Hush!" sprang from the lady's lips before he could finish his exclamation; and advancing, she laid her hand on his arm, saying, in French, which, by the way, my clerk understands: "If you hope anything from us, do not speak the name that is faltering on your tongue. For reasons of our own, for reasons of a purely domestic nature, we are traveling incognito. Let me ask you as a gentleman to humor our whim, and to know us at present as Madame and Mademoiselle Letellier." He bowed, but flu
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
IN THE SECRET CHAMBER.
IN THE SECRET CHAMBER.
Have only twenty-four hours elapsed? Is it but yesternight that all the terrible events took place, the memory of which are now making my frame tremble? So the clock says, and yet how hard it is to believe it. Madame Letellier— But I will preserve my old method. I will not anticipate events, but relate them as they occurred. To go back then to the note which I received from madame. I did not like it. I did not see its consistency, and I did not mean to be its dupe. If she intended remaining in t
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE MARQUIS.
THE MARQUIS.
But the events of the night are not over. As soon as I had seen mademoiselle comfortably ensconced in my old room up stairs, I returned to the sitting room, where the marquis still lingered. He was standing in the window when I entered, and turned with quite a bright face to greet me. But that brightness soon vanished as he met my glance, and it was with something like dismay that he commented upon my paleness, and asked if I were ill. I told him I was ill at ease; that events of a most serious
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
MARK FELT.
MARK FELT.
As it was late and I was almost exhausted, I began to think of rest. But my uneasiness in re gard to madame would not let me sleep till I had made another visit to her room. So, leaving the gentle sleeper lapped in serenest dreams, I proceeded to descend once more. As I passed the great clock on the stairs, I noticed that it was almost midnight and began to hasten my steps, when I heard a loud knock at the front door. This is not an infrequent sound with us, but it greatly startled me this night
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
FOR THE LAST TIME.
FOR THE LAST TIME.
My eyes turned immediately in the direction of the secret chamber. Its entrance was closed, but I knew she was hidden there as well as if the door had been open and I had seen her. What should I do? For a moment I hesitated, then I rushed from the room and hastened back to Mr. Felt. I found him standing with his face to the door, eagerly awaiting my return. "What has happened?" he asked, importunately. "Your face is as pale as death." "Because death is in the house. Madame—" "Ah!" "Lies not in h
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
A LAST WORD.
A LAST WORD.
Did Marah Leighton will the coming of her old lover to my inn on that fatal night? That is the question I asked, when, with the first breaking of the morning light, I discovered lying on the table under an empty phial, a letter addressed, not to her husband, nor to her child, but to him, Mark Felt. It is a question that will never be answered, but I know that he comforts himself with the supposition, and allows the trembling hope to pass, at times, across his troubled spirit, that in the bittern
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter