The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1881-03-15

excited state. The ghost in the house
had been my last conscious idea. And
now this strange face, which seemed to
be advancing on me out of the gloom,
was 1t q creation of my own fancyp Or
was it some one playing trick upon
mep In my case, now was my time to
fathom the mystery. Trying to be
courageous and gather my wits together,
1 advanced. The face receded, and
passed into the deeper shadow, till it
appeared to be suddenly swallowed up
in the draperies of the heavily curtained
window. 1 rushed forward, but was
not swift enough. Before had touched
the curtains, the face had disappeared.
was certain, however, perfectly GER
tain, that as L drew the curtains open 1
felt resistance to my hand, and at the
same time gust of colder air rushed
against my face, as if from an opened
window. At first, / felt as if about to
faint; but my will, fortunately, was
strong, and 1 threw the curtain aside,
and put my hand on the window. 1t
was closed. L tried the bar, which could
only be fixed from the inside, and it
was as had left it early in the evening.
At this discovery my agitation over
powered me, my head swan, and L
tainted. When L recovered conscious
ness, 1 was lying in the broad recess of
the curtained window, and L felt q
trickling sensation on my forehead, and
suspected, what afterward found to be
the case, that I had struck my head on
some article of furniture, and was bleed
ing. This involuntary blood-letting
helped to revive me, and sat up.
For few minutes remained parti-
ally stunned and bewildered. 1 felt
creeping sensation, as if I had been
struck by frost-wind. After q while,
my heart began to beat less audibly, and
1 rose to my feet. At that moment the
embers of the fire suddenly sank to the
bottom of the CRATE, sending up a faint
Pickering light, which was absolute
cheerfulness as contrasted with the
horrible semi-darkness that had hitherto
prevailed. / felt my courage returning,
and managed to ring the bell. The
ayah came, alarmed that should have
summoned her at an hour when she
supposed I retired to rest. did not tell
her what had witnessed, only asked
her to light candle. She did so, and
as the light fell upon my face, she gave
slight scream. 1 had forgot at the
moment that blood was trickling from
the wound had received, or 1 should
not have asked her to light the candle.
AS it was, / had to make the best excuse
1 could in answer to her inquiries. 1
said must have slept long by the fire,
and in moving about the darkened room
had fallen and hurt myself. The wound,
however, was found to be mere scratch;
and in few minutes the ayah had sue
ceeded in removing from my face all
marks of the disaster.
asked her to leave the candle with
me and allow me to retire to rest. She
did so; and after the door was closed
upon her proceeded with the candle to
examine the window more minutely.
The mystery was as much q mystery as
as ever. The window had certainly not
been opened by any one, and no trace
was visible on the walls of any possible
means of ingress and egress. 1 felt
more nervous than ever, and was about
to turn and leave the room altogether,
so much did my fears oppress me, when
something lying on the floor attracted
my attention. stopped and picked 1t
up. 1t was small piece of white cloth
"a few inches square-very frail in the
texture, as If half.rotten with damp or
age, and adorned with peculiar kind
of embroidery such as l thought 1 had
seen before, but could not recall where.
On one edge there was hem, the other
three edges being irregular and jagged.
1t looked like piece of cloth wrenched
out of IA garment by the foot being sud
denly placed upon it. felt I had made
discovery.
Returning to the fire. place, 1 sat down
to think. 1t seemed clear to me now
that my visitant, however he or she had
effected an entrance, was no spirit. This
piece of linen was certainly not lying
there when had closed and barred the
window for the night; nor could it
belong to the apparel of any member of
my household. 1t was not unlikely
that it was part of the loose garment of
dingy white which / now remembered
my strange visitant wore.