The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-04-26

Like frill or ruffie! Like-like-
good Godl was it only a fancyf-the
ruffies at her wrist; and stained with
How left that horrible house l hard
ly know, but five minutes later l was
outside it in the open street, and lave
never entered it again. For several
weeks l lay very i'll in Russell place; so
ill that Hester was sent for from Ander-
shot to help the LIS in nursing me;
and as soon as I was well enough to be
moved she took me back there with her,
and afterwards returned with me to the
North, where / have remained quietly
almost ever since. On the second day
of my illness Mrs. L. and my broth
er-in-law went to the house in Melrose
Square. Mrs. Gathers was there and
opened the door to them, protesting great
alarm at my absence and entire inno-
cence as to the possibility Of anything
in the house being the cause of it; but
when she found that one Of their first OBJ
jects was to summarily send her about
her business, her manner altered, and
she sturdily refused to go, declaring that
she had been put into the house by the
other lady and the landlord, and that no
one had any right to send her off at q
moments warning because a poor, weak
minded woman had got a fever: She
had done all she could for her, and tried
to keep her quietly in bed; though as to
drugging her, that was all an invention,
and she would swear she had not. Let
them take her to a magistrate and try;
and if the poor, silly woman would get
up and go out what could be expected
but she would get worsef Why, she had
seen at the very BEGINNING what ner-
vous hysterical state she was in; and
had told the landlord she did not much
like being left alone with such a person;
and the least she expected was q months
board and wages in compensation. Tom
had written to the landlord already, and
an angry interview and correspondence
ensued, the latter gentleman persisting
in tseating all suspicion of there being
anything wrong in the house az equally
childish and insulting, had the ground
of the summer-house dug up, and tri-
umphantly pointed out that there was
nothing buried there (this was week
after my visit to the spot, and who could
tell what had been done in the interim y
and spoke of me uniformally as poor,
nervous bibliomaniac, worked up into
brain fever by a disordered digestion
and an over-wrought brain. Indeed, he
even threatened to claim a quarters
rent. declaring that the house had been
taken for six months; but my brother
in.law fought this valiantly, and he had
to be content with the months rent he
had received in advance.
As to Mrs. Gathers, she disappeared
during the quarrel between her superiors
and was heard Of no more. My firm be-
lief is and always will be, that she was
aware of the evil character of the house,
and was heavily paid by the landlord to
aot as servant to his tenants in it, and
cast slur on anything they might de-
clare they had seen there. He, of course,
spoke of her as person of the highest
character, and pointed to the fact that
none Of my property had been disturbed
in my absence as proof thereof.
But what was the explanation Of the
mystery? What was the dark secret Of
this house so strangely shadowed forth
to me, plain matter-of-fact woman Of
the nineteenth century? After minute
inquiries among the neighbors and shop.
keepers in the vicinity, can only say
do not knowl The mystery is still un.
explained; the secret still hidden in those
dreary walls, never, probably to be un-
yelled on earth. All that the lawyer
and Mrs. L., acting for me, could
find out in their research was this: The
house had been untenanted for yeal
and half before I took it; the last peo-
pie who lived there being blind old
lady with her husband, and two servants
The aged couple used to go to bed very
early, and the servants slept down stairs
and never spoke of having heard or seer
anything out of the common; but one
night the husband, having to come down
stairs for his wife's medicine, must have
missed his footing, for be was heard fall
ing to the bottom, and was picked ur
speechless and dying. The blind widow
went away after that, and the household
broke up.
Who had the house before them? Oh
young couple; but they only staid {
week or 30, and left suddenly, Reportee
in the neighborhood that the landlord
turned them out; said they were not re
spectacle people.
And before that? Before that it hat
been empty good while, ever since thu
old gentleman lived there who owned i
and was uncle to the present landlord
Married. No; nor likely to have been
very ill-favored old gent, and not pleas
ant in his manners, either. HAD ware
living with him, however, young lady
but she was said to be sad invalid
never went out, and no one ever saw her
except now and then at an upper win
dow. They went away all in hurry tt
France-indeed, no one knew till they
were gone; for they were not sociablt
people, only kept one servant, latterly I
charwoman who did not sleep in th'
house, and had no acquaintances in th'
neighborhood. Folks said the young
l 4 Il 2