The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-01-21

myself and the children in flannel, keeping
the doors and windows closed, and having
large fires in the rooms and hall. In spite
of all could do two of them fell i'll. Their
illness was not serious; but nursing and
looking after them gave me much to do, for
their ayah (Indian nurse), was suffering at
the moment from a severe cold which rem
dered her almost incapable of helping me,
Such was my position when, one morning
the housemaid asked 10 see me. l knew
what this meant, and was not surprised to
hear that she intended to leave us that very
day. Her mother wanted her, she said. l
asked her mothers reason. She was i'm
pc letrable. I offered her higher wages. She
said, tremblingly that she would not stay if
l were to offer her a hundred pounds. be-
gan to perceive that the news of the ghost
story had got abroad; and l asked her if
there was anything in the house of which
she was afraid; but to this question she was
dumb. / said 1 would see her again, and
sat down to think with my sick child in my
lap. Even while | was thinking, there
came knock at the door of my room. l
cried out Come in," but my heart sank.
My cook was at the door. The girl who
helped in the kitchen and house was behind
her. Both looked scared and announced
that they were going.
did not know what to do. To gain time l
money in the house, said. The bank. as
they knew, was some miles distant. They
had no right to leave me without due notice;
in fact, | would not let them go. So | said,
and hoped they were quieted for time.
But late that evening the ayah came to me
with CONSERVATION i'll her face. All the
three English servants had left me!
By that time the children were in bed and
everything was still. l babe the ayah go to
,ar ba .hi nd Of
ter locking my bedroom door, sat alone,
thinking. l had passed through an excit-
ing day. The night was chilly; l was tired
and not very well. That the warmth of the
ire and the comfort of my favorte lounging
chair should presently cause a deligh full
sense of Indifference to all and
every annoyance need not be con-
sidered wonderful. As 1 sat there gave
way to the pleasant compulsion, and was
soon, imagine, fast asleep. l say l imag
| inc, because there was no witness present;
and of what we do and what we don't do,
| in that strange, indefinite border-land of
sensation which separates waking time from
sleeping time, we can never be perfectly GER
| tain.
SO far as know slept for some consid-
cradle time. 1t was sen sation, l believe, Of
my feet waxing cold that first loosened the
| bonds of slumber. While I was L. that
semi-conscious state which has peculiar
discomfort, became dimly alive to the fact
| that there was in the room some presence
| other than my own. There was move
ment-a stirring in the air as if some Great
| ure had come in. The events of the day re-
turned to my memory, which was only half
alive. started up, rubbing my eyes, for /
| could not be at all sure that was awake
and in my right mind.
When went to sleep was alone. Yes,
certainly. But even if it were not so, what
strange pale face was this now gazing at me
across the dimly-lighted space Of the shad-
owy room? I was but half awake. My
nerves were in an 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 it creation of my own fancy?
Or was it some one playing trick upon
me? In any case, now was my time to
fathom the mystery. Trying to be coura-
geous and gather my wits together, 1 adj
yanced. The face recedsd and passed into
deeper shadow until IL appeared to be sud-
denly swallowed up in the draperies of the
heavily curtained window. l rushed for
ward, but was not swift enough. Before
| touched the curtains the face had disap-
| peared. | was certain, perfectly certain,
| that as | drew the curtains open felt re-
sstance 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, fortunate
| ly, was strong, and I threw the curtains
was closed. tried the bar, which could
only be fixed from The inside, and it was as
had left it early in the evening.
| Atthis discovery my agitation overpowered
| me; my head swan, and tainted. When
| recovered consciousness was lying in the
| broad recess of the curtained window. and
| felt trickling sensation on my forehead,
and suspected, what | afterward found to
be the case, that l had struck my head on
| some article of furniture and was bleeding.
| This involuntary blood-letting helped me to
revive, and l sat up.
For few minutes I remained partly
| stunned and bewildered. 1 felt a creeping
sensation, as if had been struck by FROST
| wind. After while my heart began to
beat less audibly and rose to my feet. AT
| that moment the embers of the fire suddenly
ssnk into the bottom of the CRATE, sending
| up faint, Pickering light which was abso-
| lutely cheerful as con1rasted with the horri-
Bile semi-darkness tina had hitherto pre-
vailed. | felt my courage returning and
| managed to ring my bell. The ayah came
alarmed that should have summoned her
at an hour when she supposed | had retired
to rest. did not tell her what had wit
| messed, only asked her to light candle She
did so, and as the light fell upon my face,
she gave a light scream. had for
| gotten at the moment that blood was trick
| ling from the wound | had received, or
should not have asked her to light the can
| die. As it was, had to make the best ex-
cuse could in answer to her inquiries.
said l must have slept q long time by the
| fire and in moving about the darkened room
had fallen and hurt myself. The wound,
| however, was found to be a 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 infinitely. The mystery was
as much mystery as ever. The window
had certainly not been opened by any one,
and no trace as visible on the walls OF any
possible means of ingress or egress. 1 felt
more nervous than ever, and was about to
turn aud quit the room altogether, 80 much
did my fears Cypress me, when something
lying on the floor within the recess attracted
my attention. stopped to pick it up. 1t
was small piece of white cloth-a few in
ches square-very frail in the texture as if
half-rotted with damp or age and adorned
with peculiar kind of embroidery such as
l thought had seen before but could not
recall where. On one edge there was a
hem; the other three edges being irregular
and jagged. 1t looked like piece of cloth
wrenched out of a garment by foot being
suddenly placed upon it. felt had made
discovery.
Returning to the fireplace I sat down to
think. 1t seemed clear to me now that my
vistant, however he or she had
effected an entrance, was no spirit.
The piece of linen was certainly
not lying there when l had closed
and barred the window for the night; nor
could it belong to the apparel of any mem
Der of my household. 1t was not unlikely
that it was part of the loose garment of din
gy white which l now remembered my
strange vistant wore.
am naturally strong-minded, and grad
ually began to recover my composure. |
said to myself: 81 shall find out the secret.
The first link of the chain is between my
fingers. l never before heard of ghosts
tramping bits out of their drapery, and n
doubt the ghost 1 saw had been nearly as
much afraid as myself when I approached it
and had not got away without little furry.
This accounts, too" l thought, 'for the re-
sistance which l felt to my hand when first
laid hold of tho wi douu