The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1884-01-10
BEHIND THE TAPESTRY.
HdIpcr's Weekly.

"Hl'h dul ABOUT 70 tel happened some
ten years ago.
Ten years ago was i'm the first sorrow
of my widOwhood. ! was childless, too;
and when the grave closed over my hus-
band / thought that there was no place
left fol me in the world
was rich, young and my friends
and my own reelection in the glass told
me 1 was beautiful.
ri course / had many Hcquantances;
what rich young widow has not? But
acquaintance aud friends differ widely.
did not care for the people who flat
.crcd and made much of me, but |
turned, even I'm the first days of my
trouble, to one friend.
Shbr too, was young and beautiful
We were school-fellows; we were en-
gagged ut the same time; we were mar
ried in the same month Of the same
year s-e
During the three years of my married
life we had seen little Of each other, but
when my husband died, and Mary Cliff
ford wrote to me tcndcrlv out of her full
heart, | answered back her love.
She asked me TO stay with her, and /
went.
How peaceful were these DAYS spent
i'm her beautiful home! The house and
place were called Aspen's Vale. The
house was many centuries old. It's archi-
lecture was remarkable; its rooms
curious. II was a rambling old place,
and 81 course it had a ghost. IL stood
in the Must Of very lovely grounds
overlooking wood and river, Altogether
1t y. as one of the show-placcs in -.
shire,
I stayed with the Cliiforrls for a couple
of months. During this time the house
WAS quiet, visitors few-thcY cschewed
company for my sake.
AT the end of two months l left them,
Comforted and helped. and with many
promises of return by-and-by,
Circumstances, however, too varied
and too many TO mention prevented
that second visit taking place for
couple of wears. At the end of that
time great longing came over me to
see Mary Clifford again. l must write
to her, and propose a visit l did so.
BY return of post l got n short but
characteristic reply:
you, hut, unfortunately, the house is full
Largo as il is, it is crammcd from cellar to
My dear I don't want to refuse Won. 7 do
long 70 sec YOU, VIII you slocp in the tapes
trN-roomt Tor OF course i "a empty. ! dare not
put anybody else thCUC, but / don't think Won
iIonor VIII be RtrSid of the ghost, If tho
tapcstry-room VIII do, come. and thousand
loving iric nd,
MARY CLrFFoRD."
To this letter I made a short answer:
e / do not believe in the ghost The
tapcstry-room Will do beautifully. Ex-
pCct me Tomorrow
The next evening l arrived at Aspen's
Vale i'm time for dinner. The tapestry
room looked charming l fell in love
with il on tho spot, and vowed laugh
ingly that the ghost and l would make
friends.
My maid, however looked grave over
my testing remarks; it was plain that
she believed in supernatural Visitations.
Gayety of heart, however, was over
me- j could not resist the cheerful in
hueuce OF my old friends company.
felt happier than had done since my
husband death, and, after a very de-
ilghuEi evening, retired to my room,
toe.ng brave enough to encounter any
number of ghosts that might choose to
visit me.
The tapestry was quite away
from the rest of the house-it was at the
extreme end of wing.
No other bedrooms were in this wing
There were Smokiug-roum, morning
room, and little oriel chamber. which
Mrs Clifford in her early married life
had curi0usly fitted up for herself, but
now seldom occupied. Neither did she
believe in the ghost, but she confessed
that this little oriel chamber had an
ceric feel.
The moruing-rOOm opposite, cheerful
and pretty enough, was unused. Its
furniture was antique. 1t belonged to
hy-gouc day, and its Inhabitants were
dead. The smoking room also was de
serted: even the fumes Of tobacco had
left it, the squire preferring more cen
trail apartment in the modern part of
the house.
Altogether. this wing of the old
house seemed dead. Visitors only came
TO it out of curiosity; they paid brief
visits, and preferred doing so in broad
daylight.
1t must have been quite hundred
years since the tapestry room in the far
end of this wing had been slept in Old
rs the other rooms in the wing looked,
the tapeStry-rOOm bore quite the palm
for ancient appearance. There was not
ain article of furniture in it, not n chair,
not q table, which must not have seen
the light of centuries
The furniture was all of the blacklist
oak, the bcdstead the usual four-p poster
on which our ancestors loved to stretch
themselves. But the curious feature of
the room, that which gave it its name,
WAS lht ltlltSllN- NOl an men OF the
walls was TO be seen; they were hung
completely with very ancient and very
faded tapestry. There was a story
about this tapestry. One Dame Cliff
ford, of long, long by-gone days, had
worked it, with the help of her nElidens.
She had come to an untimelv end on
the very day ON which the great work
of her life had been completed.
1t does not matter TO this story what
became of the proud and fair dame,
but it was her ghost which was said to
haunt the wing, and the tapestry cham
her in particular. Warden. my maid,
as she helped me to undress, looked
unite pale with terror.
.They do say, mann, as Dame Clare
Clifford appears with her head tucked
,,ndeg- her arm, and threads from the
oId tapestry hanging to her skeleton
f,,,rcrs She's dressed in gray silk,
,I,af doesn t rustic never a bit, though
80 90 thick it might stand all alone,
80 do saw. It's awful lonesome for
~ madam. to sleep here alone, and
Ti sfav with YOU with pleasure if it
adn,es 10 that, though my nerves arn't
oo,,ie Of the strongest.
no / thanbed Warden, however and as