Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-09-16

comfort. We were sitting thirteen. Mrs. NJ.
l rather think. must have noticed me counting
the numbers. for she made some remark as II In
reply to my thOught-''SO sorry We were dis
appointed of one Of our party at the last mo-
lnent"
Meanwhile A. was again attracting my at
tention by his extraordinary behavior. His
partner, pretty-loOking, lively girl. was
evidently doing her best to make herself agree
able, and he was answering her in an inter-
mittent fashion; but could see he was eating
very little, and crumbling his bread in a ner-
vous preOccupied manner, while every now
and then his eyes wandered to Mrs. M with
a curious fixed stare that was positively ILL
hammered, and altogether unaccountable In
stinctiyely turned to the same quarter to see
what could be the object of this persistent scru-
tiny, but i'm vain There indeed was a beauti
full woman, dressed to perfection, and with those
at her like that? l began to wonder If she or
any other Of the guests would observe As
rudeness. tried to catch his eye, but without
success. In a little while lapsed into compare
tive silence, and set myself to watch As
movements more narrowly as well as / could
across the table. After time it seemed to me
that the direction of As gaze must be at Mrs.
Ms head, or little above it but there was
nothing | could see to account for this To be
sure, she wore. fastened into the thick top coil
of her hair a jeweled ornament of some kind
that seemed to sparkle at times with intense
brilliancy; but still, why this repeated and Of
fensive contemplation at her own table Of q
married woman on whom, SO far as l knew,
neither A nor l had ever set eyes before.
Could these two have been known to each other
in some bygOne love affair, or was the man gone
out of his wits. or had he taken too much drink
How this memorable dinner struggled on to a
conclusion hardly remember. The more figgety
got the more irresistibly was drawn to watch
A.. His face wore pale, scared aspect
quite foreign to him, for he was ordinarily a
OD-9p naciy Tia
turbed. At length it seemed that our hostess
became aware of the intent observation she was
being subjected to, and before the ladies rose
from the dinner table her handsome features
had grown very white, there was visible
trembling movement in Ter hands, and her eyes
took an uneasy expression not previously there.
As soon as we men were left alone and almost
before we could re-seat ourselves. A. turned
to our host and in an odd muff1ed voice an
nounced that he felt unwell. and begged per-
glanced at me with puzzled air-'He was so
very sorry. Could he do anything? And, of
course, the carriage was entirely at Mr.. As
service" By this time it was evident some
thing was really amiss with A.; so I made
some sort Of excuse that feared he had had q
hard days march and got soaked, sent out
sincere apologies to Mrs. M, and, rejecting
the kind offer Of the carriage, we found our
selves out again in the moonlight. The moon
was well up, and as we passed the old runOus
Cndpel you coulu see, through llftle pointed
window in the gable, the wall beyond half lit
up, and dappled over with long shadows from
the thorn trees alongside. We walked for
little while in silence, celebrating what to
say. whether to be stern or sympathetic, but de-
cidedly inclining to the former. Indeed whether
he were well or ill., the extraordinary gestures
and demeanOr OF A that evening were
unbecOming in the extreme, and, taking place
as they did in the presence OF his senior officer
could not be passed over. Mr.. A."
at length l began. in an official tone, II
must ask what is the meaning" He had been
now, as spoke, he suddenly stopped, turned
round. and. graspng my arm, broke in with.
$50 help me Cod major, the devil stood behind
her" 1.-The devil stood behind her!" l said, in
utter amazement; ''what on earth do you
mean?" II mean what l say; the devil was
standing behind her all the time" His voice
fell almost to a whisper. and he looked back
toward the house, which was still in sight.
could have no doubt who he meant by her, but
was so taken aback that what to 60 on saying
to the man knew not. 1t was obvious he was
under some strange mental delusiOn. We
walked on. Presently he spoke again, as if to
behind her by the mantelpiece'-''be-
hind her chair'-''that fearful things face
'thOse fiendish eyes, my God!"
AS said before, am not superstitiOus, but 1t
was neither quite comfortable nor canny hear
ing these queer EXPLANATIONS under the peculiar
circumstances: in moonlight walk, dark. UNI
brageOus thickets on one side of US; on the other
black, cavernOus cliffs and the melancholy, mur-
muring sea.
As far as my memory serves we were still
stopped again an instant and said: 'Listen!
what's that?" l could hear nothing. but in
few seconds came the distant clatter Of gal
Looping horse along the drive. Something has
happened to her." whispered A, laying a
chill hand on mine Anything the natter"
i Sh0nfp0 fha yrh n cnd tIn
horse. The man called out something which
we were unable to catch, and galloped on. We
could see him pull up at the gate. and a woman
come out to open it; but by the time we reached
her, horse and rider were out of sight, She was
standing staring down the road after Them and
l asked her if anything was wrong ''Jesu save
us, surf" she exclaimed crossing herself. the
man says NEE lady is Dead she has taken her
life!" Dead! taken her life!" was my ejacula-
ton. "Why. we've only just left the housed"
But what an announcement l was utterly
unable to realize it; it seemed too mOnstrOus
My first impulse was to run back at once to the
kali and see if we could be of any use; but on
second thought it seemed better not Then. as
we hurried out of the park through the tall
massive gateway. heard my companion lnutter
evidently still possessed with his hallucination,
Ibid she see it, too?"
About half way to Moynetown we met our
car coming out to fetch us, and mounted it.
seen Ms man rldln Dy 1lst now like
smoke" was the remark of our whilom tact
turn jarvie; "there's somethin' up, behave
They tells quare tales Of that house, an the
ouh chapel, an the lights seen about it O.
nights, an the sthrange noises paople hears
thereabout Och, thin, shure an there's bad
luck in that house, sur!" l was too stupefed
to stop the fellows gable till his words were
out, and they have often required to my mind
since. When we got back to our inn the ill
news was already in the air. sent for the
landlord, inquired for the principal medical
man In the town, and dispatched an urgent
message to him, i4timating what we had heard.
and begging him to 60 out to the hall lmme-
diatelysn Word uas brought back that the doc
tor had already been sent for, and gone This
done, felt hardly dared ask further questions
OF any one just the9. Yet the whole thing
seemed like horrid dream, hardly credible
We sat up late into the night in the little inn
parlor-1 absorbed In the occurrence of this
eventful evening, and in painful anticipation of
hearing more; A. speaking mot word, but
glOwering into the fire.
Next morning we were to make an early start
Before the fall-in bugle sounded the little bust
ling landlady had communicated to US all sorts
of rumOrs concerning the terrible event that had
taken place the night before. Clearly the
tragic story was all over the town by this
time, but the only coherent upshot of the mat
ter we could extract was that the poor lady