Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-09-16
A STRANGE STORY.
From Blsckwood,s Magazine.


ttubances were apprehended, and we had been
/ started of at pretty short notice. / have even
now lively recollection of long railway Jour-
ney the dingy stations we passed, the tedious
| stoppages, occasional FLASHES of rain against
the carriage windows, and our final exit from
| the train in a dark, draughty shed with a
| sloppy platform. From here we had a good
| long march to our hating-place through
| sad-c0lored waste, past hillsdes of black bog,
| hardly fence worth calling one to be seen,
| now and then n tumble-doGn howell by the
| roadside AMI off and on the rain pelting down
| In the sort OF searching cold showers one gets
| - bleak parts of Ireland in the autumn time
| The town where We were to stay the night was
| no exception to the general dinginess. After
setting the men down into their billets, we
| 'prospected the prime pal inn in the place, got
o couple OF very m!ddiing bedrooms. and made
| up our minds to make the best of the situation
/ We had Invested ourselves of our wet uniform,
catered our little sitting room with its welcome
peat pied fire. examined some hiGeOus sacred
prints hung round the was-among them
remember one of st. Veronica displaying a
large handkerchief with the SaviOur's face
upon it-and We're busy planning what to asso-
! cate with whisky and the jacketed potato,
u hen note was brought in and handed to me-
with message that some one was waiting for
an answer. 1t was addressed to 1.-THE officer
| commanding detachment, - Regiment; - but
0.l@ saw at a glance it was not an official COM
Eiun!cation, the envelope being dainty white
! one and the handwriting almost Enthusiastically
tiTat of a lady. 1t turned out to be very cour-
teous invitation from Mr. and Mrs NJ of
.lnnshderry Hall 1--WE will call it, who, having
! heard that some troops were passing through
MoynetOwn to-day hoped for the pleasure of
the officers company at dinner that evening
This was really timely as well as a hOspitable
oiier. so A, my subaltern, and / at once
agreed to accept it.
Fortunately. when evening came around. and
nE katg in.lf-J ;.lk
our entertainers clattered up to the inn door
the weather had cleared little. Well do re-
member the drive; the cold. keen air; pale
| ha!t-InoOn lighting up the sOmbre landscape;
| dark islands of bog alternating with pools Of
shimmering water; hill slopes near but mystic
/ rious. As far as can remember we entered the
! grounds of Innishderry Hall about mile and q
half from the town. Already the country had
| begun to wear prettier aspect; patches of wood
| appeared, and after passing the lodge gate we
| began to descend valiey-broken, rocky
! ground. with clumps of spruce and larch on
either side-till suddenly emerging from this
/ the drive swept around corner, and we were
in view of the sea. A few minutes more and we
were looking down over a charming little bay
smut in by cliffs. with boat high and dry up the
| beach; and from this point till we sighted the
! lights of the house cOpse, park and heather in
| termingled one with the other to our left, while
| Oh the right great white lines of surf quivered
and broke in the moonlight.
1t was beautiful scene as 1t presented itself
/ to us in the Obscurity of the nighttime. Posi-
| bly, by day some of its entertainments might have
been missing, but we did not see it in daylight.
| Such as was it probably impressed me- and
stamped itself in my memory more on account
| of the subsequent incidents which ensued than
| anything else.
The house. as we drew up to it, seemed
/ large and handsome one. 1t had a great many
! windows. steep-pitched roof. and was partly
ivy-ciad. Two long ranges of outbudngs were
attached to it, one at either end and from that
nearest US as we approached ran out an old wall
matted with ivy stems and forming an Enclosure
screened by row of thorn trees, behind which
one could Just make out the ruined gable-end of
| small building. Our driver, who had been
most uncOmmuncative all the way out as to our
host and hostess, cOndescended to tell uSthis
was very ancient chapel, which some ancestor
OF the family had pulled down and dismantled
"bad luck to him!"
The fine entrance hall can recall It now
warmed by an ample stove and we'll lighted up,
with few dressed skins lying about, and a
huge ebOn cabinet over against the door, made
a CHEEKY contrast to the outside car and sur
roundings we had just left. Round the walls
were grouped a splendid pair of stays horns, q
fox's head and brush, stuffed seal. and other
| trophies of sporting life; and black buffalo's
massive frontlet surmOunting a sheaf Of asse-
+, gals, suggested at once what we afterward
| learned to be the case, that our host had been
| In South Africa. 8 wonder what sort of people
| they are. MajOr?" were As words to me.
and glanced down critically at his boots, while
We followed the butler to the drawing room. A
moment more and we were face to face with our
new acquaintance
do not recollect anything very noteworthy
about our host. He was tall and rather hand
| some man, but of somewhat faded aspect-Quiet
and genial in his manner. Il am an old soldier
| myself, was his greeting to us, land never
like any one In the service to pass our place on
| duty without our finding him out" But our
hOStpSSl AS | shook hands with her she at "a
| engrOssed my attention. am at a loss now as
| / was then to define the nature or cause of the
peculiar interest she seemed at once to excite in
me. Certainly she was a remarkably handsome
| woman. but my observation of her at the mo-
ment OF introduction was quickly diverted by
| the strange demeanor of A.. had turned
around and was in the act of presenting him
when he suddenly started. stopped, and, without
stared at her. For the instant the situation
| was embarrassing. Was the man going to faint,
| or was he Off his head, or what? There he
stood. stock STILL facing Mrs. M, till, in
severe tone, said: O.. this is our hostess
| Mrs. NJ. allow me to introduce Mr.. A."
| This appeared to rouse him little, for he made
a sort of backward movement which might do
| DUTY for bow, though very poor apology TOR
| it, and said, I'LL beg your pardon" re-
| firing Immediately into the BACKGROUND. II
| this was bashfulness, it was curious form of
it, l thought and certainly new in my knOwl-
| edge Of A. This little incident over, had
| leisure to look around the room. There ap-
peared to be about dozen people in ALL Mr.
NJ introduced me to relation Of his, baro-
| net whose nameI forget; to parsOn, who assured
| me In Hibernan accents that troops had been
| down here repeatedly" aud to q niece, whom
l was to take in to dinner. / caught mo-
| mentary glimpse of A., and saw to my sur
prise that he was furtively but intently watch
ing the lady of the house from an obscure corner.
| j was quietly slipping up to him to ask what it
all meant when dinner was announced.
At the dinner table found myself on the left
of our hostess, the BarOnet opposite me. A.
was placed some distance down on the other
side, SO that 1 could keep an eye On him. which
soon began to think must do. had now an
opportunity of noting more particularly Mrs.
Ms personal appearance. Her age should
| judge to have been somewhere about eight and
twenty or thirty, considerably under her hus-
bands. Her figure was faultless neck and
| arms OF that nameless tint one has 80 often seen
| imperfectly described in novels as "creamy
white;" a corona of hair Of that deep auburn
red which so sets off fair woman; and a face
OF singular beauty, Of which you forgot every
thing but the eyes the moment you looked into
| them. Such eyes they were! Their particular
size. shape, this or that color, would never oc-
cur to one; 1t was their strange, almost weird,