The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-04-22
NUMBER 2 MELROSE SQUARE.
A STORY IN TWO CHAPTERS.


to find me nice apartments near the
Museum, furnished house in a square,
and with servant included, for positive
ly less money than you would pay for
three rooms in anything like decent
steet, was thing to be grasped at,
/ not despised; especially as l could be
30 much more my own mistress than in
| the latter place, and l could ask Tom
and Hester up from their barrack quar-
tiers to spend Christmas with me. So l
ltried to shut my eyes to the exterior
look of things and went inside. Here
1there was one Improvement at least-the
,lyellow gauze was gone. had stripped
lit off the mirror the last thing before
1.-THE house in the morning as also from
1.-THE glass in the drawing-room, which,
hthosgh the gliding of the frame was de-
Icidedly shabby, was to my great amuse-
tlment as carefully guarded as the other.
q l went up to the latter apartments
t1afuer dinner. Mrs. Gathers had suggest
He'd that "Of course I would not do SO,
has the dinin' -parlors were SO much more
Icozy;" but l did not agree with Mrs.
Gathers. That orange paper with its
maroon stripes, and the grim old engray-
hing of Judas, with the horrible express
Hon of traitor, and the sinister leering
! wfaces of the high priests and elders, were
wdepressing to my spirits. The very
force and realism of the picture made me
tIfeel as if the room were one in which it
/ Hwould be possible to plot a crime. Be
\ nsides, house in which drawing-room
i tlis unused, except for company, is never
aia cosy, or homeiike one to me; and
knew that Hester felt still more strongly
/ on the subject. l was determined that
/ Nshe should find me and my work-basket
. and books established there as a matter
Esof course when she came.
FL Neither books nor work were much
! Icalied into requisition on the present
\ s,evening, however. There was a pleasant
\ fire burning in the CRATE, and two candles
\ ion the little round table by the sofa,
.Iwhere the last number of the Cornhill,
4 with a new novel, lay awaiting my
Y Iperusal; but days continuous writing
1and my dinner combined had made me
4 tsleepy, and after reading few pages and
finding that l was getting into dreamy
STATE, and mixing up the cracklings OF
the fire with the roar of surf on a sunny
beach, and my own position on the sofa
with that of the Scottish heroine in
fast-fying cutter, gave it up, blew out
the candles, and composed myself for a
, nap till tea-time.
Do these details appear irrelevent to
you? TLey are not so in reality. /
mention them to show you that nothing
1 of what may afterwards relate can be
accounted for Gas has been falsely sug-
gested) by my being in an excited, over
wrought state, worked up by loneliness
or-the writing and reading Of sensational
romances. was in perfect health.
had lived alone for weeks and sometimes
months, when my dear mother was visit
ing her married children. had been
simply following my regular profession,
number of dry, scientific, rigidly matter
/ of-fact letters had walked home, eaten
a plain dinner, and read myself COM
fortably to sleep with one of our
healthiest and most bracing English
writer's descriptions of sea-coast scenery.
Bear this in mind as wish you to do,
and then listen to what follows:
l woke from my nap with start,
caused by the falling Of coal into the
tender. How long l had slept 1 could
not tell; but had that instructive con-
seriousness, which dare say most people
1 have experienced, that it was long
time, much longer than had intended;
and this opinion was confirmed by the
sight Of the tea things standing on the
table, where Mrs. Gathers had evidently
placed them without arousing me, and
also of the fact that when / touched the
teapot found it was almost stone cold.
Vexed with myself, rose quickly to my
feet and began putting the fire together,
4 for it had got SO low and dead that the
\ room was almost dark. Indeed, feared
Y at first that there was not sufficient
\ vitality in it to light candle, and so
!, enable me to see what time it was, and
q whether it was worthwhile beginning my
occupation; but a few skillful touches
ID with the poker soon dispelled this idea,
M and produced bright, wavering fame,
and stood up again, meaning to get a
h spill from the mantel-piece and light it
"a at once. As did so, my glance naturally
~ fell on my own face in the mirror before
flame, and / said to myself aloud, and
slsmiling as one sometimes will when
Malone: "Well, Miss Mary Liddell, you
have made your head into furze-bush
It's mercy Mrs. John isn't here to see
N YOU, Or" My voice voice broke of
u suddenly at that word; for in the act OF
IL uttering it, and smiling to myself at my
III disheveledness, as have said, saw that
II I was not alone in the room.
q Standing at the further end Of it,
II Almost opposite to the CRATE, and reflect.
I, ed In the mirror by the ruddy light, was
d woman; q woman had never seen be-
| 4 fore. That she had not been there five
N minutes back when awoke l could
4, almost have sworn; for had looked all
around the room; and as dim as the light
was, could see well enough that there
N was no one else in it, and that the dool
I! was closed. 1t was closed now, and how