The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-08-25


with the sense of possession strong upon
me. At least l should have enioyed it
immensely, it was SO entirely to nv
mind, the rest, the luxury, the lowell
ness, the space of it all but every day
I grew more and more lonely, the rooms
were SO vast if they were so beautiful,
and Harold sat now by himself so much.
I seemed to hear Mrs. MancLester's
step on the stairs, the sweep of her
train on the carpets for all the rich
furnishing of satin draperies and Ak
minister's and paintings and cloisonnes
and carvings had staid with the house.
turned twenty times day, expecting
to see that majestic figure, with its dark
sweeping silken robes about it, with the
diamond arrow in the hair, move up the
room, waving the old fan of black
feathers.
We had been in the house month,
when / ventured once more to open the
subject to Harold, and say to him that
here was home as good as-nay, far
better than-her own home for Amy.
Z" It is entirely beyond reason" said
he. "To live in this house requires
dress, equipage and style that are utterly
out of my power"
"And do you mean that even you and
I, Harold, ought not to stay hereP"
"Yes, to tell the plain truth If we
could sell the house, that would be
another thing; but as we can't, think
it will be cheaper for us in the end to
surrender it to the heirs. 1t is white
elephant"
"That would be violating Mrs. Man
chester's wish just as much as if we sold
or rented it," urged. "l wonder-I
do wonder what she meant when she
bade me remember that this was only
the half of what she meant to do for me.
Well, Harold dear, we will do exactly
as you think best, of course. But it is
too bad, too bad-so beautiful, 90 charm
ing home, and so filled with Mrs. Man
chester's presence as it is And how
perfectly Amy would fit it ALI
"With her love of pleasure, it would
be Amy's ruin," said Harold, hoarsely.
A few nights after that I was sitting
alone in the gray drawing-room, vast
and lofty room hung with gray satin.
Here and there marble cleaned from
a street lamp flashed up and played q
second on fresco or portrait, or glinted
in the mirrors between the long open
windows, through which occasionally
there drew breath of welcome air, for
it was an intensely hot summer night;
too hot, it seemed to me, as I sat not far
from the windows, for the stars to shine
AS opened my fan 1 thought if l was
SO warm in these spacious rooms, what
were people enduring down in novels
and shanties, and thought with pang
of regret of the necessity of eurrender-
ing it, and | studied again and again
the meaning of Mrs. Manchester's words,
"only the half of what l wish to do
remember that" I could not help SEN
sation of meanness, a feeling that was
sordid, although L knew it was without
thought or hope of anything Of the sort
that had loved Mrs. Manchester; but
I repeated and repeated the words,
wishing bitterly that if the gift Of the
house was but the half of whit she
meant to do, she had had time to fulfill
her intentions, not for my sake, but for
Harold's. And then my mind dwelt on
the rest of the sentence, "and when
you have done that, you will find in it
the means to obey my wish" What had
that implied? Harold had hunted the
house over, but we had found nothing
to give us clew to her meaning.
Perhaps I closed my eyes moment ;
perhaps there were tears in them-I
don't know. All do know is that the
next moment they were wide open, for
I could have affirmed that heard the
trail of q garment over the carpet. I
started and half turned, and my eyes
were caught by something like the
sparkle of diamond in the long mirror,
and there, as distinctly as ever l saw
her in my life, was Mrs. Manchester,
sweeping down the suite of parlors in
her dark robes, and waving her fan OF
black feathers, and as she glanced over
her shoulder at me there was the dia.
mond arrow in her hair. / was spell.
bound. I dared not move; hardly
breathed. Tt was ali in q half-dozen
heart beats, but she had moved slowly
up the parlors, turned to the mantel
shelf that carried it's splendid old
colonial wood-carvings to the ceiling
and rested before the armoire of FIoreu.
tine mosaic in one of the inches at its
side. Then she had taken the diamond
arrow from her hair, inserted it in some
| lAN1SlOi0 CTdCh VI bu6 WOIb, ulSpldC6C
with it leaf and blossom If the mar.
bles, taken from the interstice a bundle
of papers, run her thumb over the edge
put them back, and replaced the stone
spray of leaf and blossom, put the arrow
iu her hair again, and with her eyes OF
me, coolly waving her fan of black
feathers, had moved down the room
again-and suddenly there was empty
air in the mirror where she was.
l don't know what time had passed
when Harold came into the room with
an open letter in his hand. In all the
heat was icy cold.
"You have been dreaming" said he
when / had stammered out my story
"or you saw the darkness and the street
lamps in the glass"
Maybe so," | murmured. "Only
light the gas and let me see."
L gathered my strength, and ran, az
he obeyed me, and with my own plain
hair-pins dislodged the mosaic spray il
the front of the armoire, and took from
the interstice bundle of papers.
) "This is it, Harold" almost
screamed. "She has come back from
heaven itself to tell me what she had nc
time to tell me here. This is what she
meant by her words about finding the
means to obey her wish" 1 ran my
thumb too over the edges of the parce
as she had done. A little cloud of dust
Hou, a,,& L,,k ,,ok anonnh 10 h;,ol ~, -, -