Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-06-28
The Work of the Avenger.

The Work of the Avenger.
1t lay in one of the fairest spots In al
the midland counties, and yet such q
ghostly, desOlate, haunted place could
not even have conceived before l saw il.
i had seen ruined mansions before, and
L had walked in rank, neglected, and
forgotten parks; but it seemed to me
that the isolation and the desolation here
were different. l told the vicar SO as he
took me round the empty house, point
ing out the remnants of past beauty,
which were even yet distinguishable
through the blight of decay.
"But you must not compare this, +" he
said, "with ruins pur ct simple. The
simple fact is this-the estate is i'm
chancery. In the west wing there is
door which, with a little management
and strength, i can open. Would Won
like to see within-as far as you can, /
mean, for ii only gives access to three
rooms.
The door opened into a small ante
room, so small that a couch and chair
and table, with couple of shelves filled
with faded books, seemed quite to fill
it. The vicar opened another door op-
posite to that by which we had entered,
and 1 followed him into a large and
lofty bed-chamber, whose satin hang
ings might have been a brilliant GRIM
son once, but now they were faded to
yellow brown. And they hung i'm tat.
ters where they were worn by the
hands which had once been used to
draw or lift them, and from end to end
were eaten into holes by myriads Of
moths. About the room were valuable
and handsome ornaments and books /;
and the walls were covered with paint
ings so beautiful and so little hurt by
time that they seemed to mock the worn
and faded furniture. t
"Can there be finer paintings even i'm
the picture gallery than these ?" asked
the vicar, as he unlocked another door
opposite to that by which we had en-
tered.
''No; those are picked from the gal
lery, the choicest that were there. And
in this room are the choicest portraits.
Come"
He had opened the door, and as he
spoke he pushed aside a heavy padded
curtain, under which 1 passed into a
room exactly the size and shape of the
bedroom. but furnished as a sitting
room, music room, all in one-furnished
not only handsomely and luxuriously,
as could see through all the disfigure-
ment and decay of time, but furnished
curiously, as if a hundred different
tastes had been at work, or one taste, it
might be, varying restlessly from year
TO year.
"These,'' said the vicar, looking
round upon the closely-covered walls,
''are all the best of the family portraits,
or suppose l should say they are the
most recent ones; the squires and danes
of more than one hundred years ago-I
mean of more than one hundred years
before these rooms were Occupied-stare
into vacancy from the walls of the long
mouldy gallery below. Notice this one,
will your it is the last squire"
tDid he die young?"
"NO-o."
"Will you tell me how it was?" /
urged, as rested on faded couch be-
fore the portrait, twill you tell me the
story of this desOlate place?"
sI will tell you as we walk home,"
he answered. But when he saw how
tired / was, and that we must rest there
foresOoth, he took another of the chairs,
and brushing off little of the thick
dust and cobwebs, sat down upon il,
and began the story, in low, uneasy
voice, which made me so nervous that
presently l even feared to look around
me.
Lindley Warwick was q very young
man when he inherited this estate, very
handsome, as you see, and proud, with
a pride that was ultra-sensitive and re
fined. That such a man possessing
fine estate, of high birth, and educated
and accomplished as few country gen.
tlemen were in that time, should be
favorite i'm every London drawing-rOom
is surely no matter of surprise; that
such a man, skilled in all manly exer-
cises, and free and lavish with his
wealth, should be favorite in every
country mansion in the Midlands. is
equally no matter of surprise. Few
who enjoyed his brilliant conversation
noticed the absence of generous sympa-
thy, or the cold indifference to those
who did not enter the magic circle of
refined and cultivated society in which
he moved; and few who gazed in adj
miration on the fine and perfect face,
noticed that the haughtiness which sat
so well upon it was but cold and cruel
pride after all. He lived here but
month or two in every year and then
he always had the house full of guests,
and ruled with the most lavish splen-
dor. Between these visits he enjoyed
CAV seasons-now in his handsome house
in London, now on his shooting estate
in Scotland, now abroad, and now WIS.,
iting among other families. He was
the mark at which all the looks and
thoughts of mothers were directed. he
was the idol of their daughters, he was
almost the unrivaled pet of society.
One day when he was staying here,
with a crowd of gay and fashionable
visitors. there was clumsy attempt
made by couple of burglars to rob the
house. believe it was the squire him.
self who first heard them, but at any
rate they were surprised before they
had even effected an entrance, and a
little boy, whom the villains had put
through a broken gap to unfasten the
door to them, was the only person cap
tured. This boy was the only child of
q woman who lived a very quiet and
solitary life, in a tiny cottage which
had been given her, it was said by the
late squire himself. She was Spaniard
by birth, beautiful, dark-faced woman,
who, though she lived so near him, had
never been heard TO mention the name
of the rich man who had lured her from
her native land; woman whose silent,