Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1880-01-08
The Mystery Of Garrick Hall.

T" 1t was just such night as this,
Robert" +" said Aunt Edith, to my papa,
with little shiver.
Exactly" papa replied, thought
fully; :" and the same time of year, too y
Suppose you tell the children all
about it, said mamma, quietly; "they
look as if they wanted to know very
much"
"Well, since it is perhaps time they
knew, will tell you how Aunt Edith
saved my life" continued papa, turning
to Edgar, the eldest of us, ''long ago,
long before you were born, my boy.
g Aunt Edith and I were only brother
and sister; ever SO much greater cronies
than you and Edgar are, essie, not only
because we had each other to love, but
because we had to make common cause
against an enemy, jeffrey Lawson, our
step-mother's son by previous mar
riage. We lost our own dear mother
when we were babies. jeff was ten
years older than / was; and after our
fathers death, which happened when
was eight and Edith six, we would have
had a poor time of it but for Dame
Tuttle. our dear old nurse. She looked
alter our interests, and fought all our
battles valiantly whether we were in
the right or the wrong. Our step
mother was 50 wrapped up in jeff that
she bestowed little trouble upon US. l.,
especially, was no favorite, for she got d
silly idea into her head that stood be-
tween jeff and the property of Garrick
He was fine, handsome fellow, as l
remember when / was fifteen and he
twenty-five; s-rong and daring, naughty
in disposition and hasty in temper.
hot hn
sented my being master, and himself as
if nobody; for all our servants had
grown old with US, and were staunch
and loyal to rs children of the house.
Our mother-we call her so, though
she was little more than kin and less
than kind'-resented it too, and looked
forward with very bitter feelings to the
time when L would be twenty-one; for
then, according to our fathers will, she
was to leave Garrick Hall, the home
stead, and reside in little cottage he
owned in Wales. 1t would be a differ
ent position for her, as she had but a
small iointure-all her own fortune had
been spent on Jeffrey-and by some in
explicable chain of woman's reasoning
she blamed me for what she was pleased
to call Der unmerited n1isfortunes
Each year that passed made matters
worse between us. AS / grew Older
many things in the manag ement Of tht
property struck me as very unjust. Th,
best of the timber was being cut dow1
and the house allowed to fall into .
state bordering on ruin because m,
mother would not spend money on re
pairs which ] alone was to enjoy til,
benefit of. Our family lawyer wa
dead. Jeffrey chose his mothers lega
adviser. snd neither Edith nor knew
where to look for advice or assistance
Things remained very much in this stat
until was nearly twenty, when on
day JEFF entered nay room in a state O
wild excitement, and showed me vii
that he had discovered in some out-oi
the-way corner. 1t was dated fev
days before my fathers death, and ex
cept that it bequeathed to jeffrey th
sum of Is 600, and the reversion of Gar
rick il | died without heirs, it was sub
stantially the same as the one alread
In existence.
- had my doubts about the vAlidit