The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1861-07-18
The Family al Penthouse.
From HI Tie Year Round.

tain situation. My poor mother had been il
sane for many years before her death one
my brothers was deaf and dumb, another wa
deformed, while none of us showed either healt
or vgor. In word, there was no escaping til
fact that we had the seeds of some terrible dis
ease sown thickly among us, and that, as a fam
lily, we were unhealthy and unsafe. was tn
eldest and strongest, both in mind and body blu
that was not saying much l was always wha
am now, tall and gaunt, with the spasmodi
affection which you see in my face, as nerv gu
as | am now, and nearly as thin short-sighted
which made my manners doubly awkward, ant
they would always have been awkward from
my nervousness and ungainly figure; and will
an unnatufally acute hearing, often followed BY
attacks of Inconsistencies, which sometime.
lasted many hours, and rendered me, for thu
time, dead to all outward life
Unpromising as our family condition was
when my father died and left US destitute, it wal
absolutely necessary that those of us at all capa
BILE should get something to do, and thai
the rest should be cared for by charity The
last we found more easy to be accomplished thar
the first Many kind hands We're stretched for
ward to help the helpless of US, but few 10
strengthen the weak. However, after a time,
they were all settled in some way or other and
were at least secured from starvation, while |,
who had been considered the most hopeful, was
still unproVided for, looking vainy for a situa-
ton either as goVerness or companion. Both
were equally difficult to procure On the one
side my manners and appearance were against
me, on the other, my family history. AS could
not deny my inheritance Of disease and insani-
ty, mothers, naturally enough, would not trust
me with their children, and l was not sufficient
ly attractive for a companion. People who can
afford companions want something plain BRIGHT.
animated, pleasant. No one would look at my
unlOVely face, or hear the harsh tones of my
voice-I know how harsh they are-and pay
NE TO be an ornament or pleasure to their lives
So, as l tell you, was refused by every one,
until l began to despair Of success and without
blaming any, l understand that the world was
| to hard tor me, and that had no portion in il
AS my last venture,I answered an advertise
ment N The Times for companion to a lad =
in delicate health living in the country. nv
letter was replied to in bold manly hand, and
a meeting arranged. l was to 90 down that
next day by train to place about twenty miles
from London, and find my way from a certain
railway station named, two miles across the
country-conveyance not to be had-to a viii
| lage called Fenhouse-green. mile further
would bring me to Penthouse itself, ''the seat
OF MIR and MIS-, Brande." The note was couch
ed III a curiously sharp, peremptory style. and
pompously worded. l remember, too, that il
was written on a broad sheet of coarse letter
paper, and sealed with what looked at first sight
| to be a large coat OF arms, bnt which, when ex-
| amlned, proved to be only a make believe.
| With my habit OF making up histories out of
every incident that came before me, I decided
| thal the writer was a military man wealthy and
| high born and that about 10 leave on foreign
service, he wished to place his young and beau
| titul wife in careful hands SO as to ensure her
pleasant companionship during his absence. Il
made quite romance GU. OF that peremptory
letter with its broad margin and imposing seal
'They will never take me when thew have
seen me! l sighed, as l settled myself in the
| third class carriage, which | shared with three
soldierc' wives and couple of Irish laborers
and l wished that l could have exchanged NV
fate and person with the meanest among them.
Though they were poor, they were not under a
curse, as l was though man had not uplifted
them, fortune had not crushed them as size mad
crushed me. was weeping bitterly behind my
veil, oVerpowefed with my own sadness and
despair, and almost decided on not going farth-
er TO meet only with fresh disappointment, when
the train stopped at my station, and I let my
self drift down the tide of circumstance, and
once mere dared my chance.
Asking nay way to FeDhouse-green, much to
the astonishment, apparently, OF the solitary
station-master, l struck into rugged by-road,
which he said would take me there The two
Mi les walk seemed as if it would never end -
The road was lonely, and the country desolate
ugly, and m0notonous; nothing but broad rag
ged waste, without tree or any autumn flower
to break tue dread dreariness Of the scene |
did not meet living creature until came to
an unwhoesome-looking collection of cottages.
covered with foul eruptions OF fungi and nil
dew starting out like leprosy upon the walls.
Where the villiage-green should have been, was
swamp, matted with contervR 1t was
| place to remember in ones dreams, from the
neglect and desolation, the hopeless poverty
and teverioh squaor of all about.
II this was the village of which the writer
/ had spoken 50 pompousy as his property, and
of which / had imagined all that was charming
and picturesque,it did not argue much for what
had 10 come; and l began to feel that l had
painted too brightly, and perhaps, had ranked
my chance too low. The place frightened me.
1 went through, glad to escape the stupid Won
der Of the pallid women and children who came
cIowding to the doors, as though a stranger were
q rare and not too welcome sight among them.
Indeed, some seemed to have kind of warning
terror III their looks when they pointed in tue
direction of the House, as they called it; and
one old witch, lifting her stick, cried, Surely,
surely, not there behke = in tone which froze
my blood However, it was too late now to re-
cede--so full of an indiscribable terror, went
Oh my way, until l arrived at Penthouse, where
my future was to lie.
II was lonely house, standing back from the
road, completely shut in, in front, by a tangled
shrubbery, while at the rear stretched close
dark wood with trailing underground of briars
and thorns. The gate hung broken, supported
/ by one hinge only the garden was a mass of
weeds and rubbish /; the hower-beds evergrown
: with grass and nettles; and what had once
| been rose trees and Towering shrubs, left to
wither and die, stihed by bindweed and coarser
growths. The house was of moderate size, two
stored, and roomy, but so neglected and IN
cared for, that it looked more bleakly desolate
than anything l had ever seen before. My dream
of the young and beautiful wife had vanished
and l felt as if about to be ushered into the
presence OF some fantastic horror or deadly
| crime The wet leaves FLASHED beneath my feet,
and sent up their clouds of autumn odor-the
odour of death unsightly insects and loathsome
reptiles glided before me with strange familiar
ity, which rendered them yet more loathful -
lot bird twittered through the naked branch
es OF the trees The whole place had wild,
weird, haunted look E; and shlvering with dread
i at know not what, l rang the rusty bell, hang
ing lonely out of the Clipped and broken sock
ct. The peal started me, and brought out a
small terrier, which came running round me,
barking turiously and shrIlly. The door was
opened by a'ragged, slip-shod servant girl, and
| was shown into poorly furnished room, which
seemed to be a kind of library to judge at least
by the open book case, thinly stocked with
shabby books The room was close and musty;
the fire in the crate was heaped up carefully
towards the middle, and the sides blocked in
with bricks. 1t was a mean fire; a stingy,
shabby fire.
After waitirg for some time, gentleman and
lady came in. She was pale, weak, hopeless
looking woman, very tall, fair, and slender,
with narrow forehead, lusterless light blue
eyes with no eyelashes, scanly hair, straw-col-
ored. i!l-defned, eyebrows, and very thin pale
lips. She was slightly deformed and carried
{ her arms thurst far back from the elbow, the
hands left to dangle nervelessly from the wrists.
She stopped, and was dressed in a limp, faded
5 cotton gown, every way too scanty and toe
cold for the season. When she came IN, bel
eyes were beAt towards the soiled grey carpet
and she never raised them, or made the leas
kind ofsalutation, but sat down on chair neal
. | the window and hegoo e. ,,,,,oo1 -: =