St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-08-01
NO. IL WELHAM SQUARE.
From the Cornhill Magazine.


our house at Bayswater one evening after
dinner in high good humor had that day
been appointed to certain post at the
British museum which would afford me
ample opportunity for the studies i'll which
l was most interested, and put me i'll pos
session of what l expected to find an ample
competence. We had been talking over my
prospects, and the only cloud l could dis
Germ upon the horizon was that L should
have to be at my post at an earlier hour IN
the morning than was comfortably c0mpatl-
BILE with the three-miie walk from our house
to the museum.
''What pity" said my youngest sister,
Patricia, THAT we don't still live i'll the
dear old house in Welham square. You
could have got to the museum from there
i'll five minutes"
l was born after we left Welham square,
but Patricia was six years my senior, and
could remember her nursery days there.
Not at ALL" said my father, very
abruptly; 1.-The walk will do you all the
good in the world"
AS the old gentleman had been, to all APP
pearances fast asleep for at least ten min
utes, / was rather surprised at the energy
with which he spoke. Looking up, L saw
my mother making anxious signals to Pa
tricia, which she followed up by instantly
changing the subject.
A few days afterward, as l descended re-
luctantly into the bowels of the earth at the
Edgware Road Metropolitan station, Oh
the way to my work for the first time, this
episode required to my mind. and l began
to speculate upon what might be the rea-
SONS that made the mention Of Welham
square diStaSteful to my parents. deter
mined to consult my eldest sister, Ellen, on
the subject, and from her and some other
sources | gradually accumulated the facts,
which l will present here in the form OF
continuous narrative.
No. II WeIlham square has always been
the freehold property of my family. 1t was
built together with several adjoining houses,
about the beginning of eighteenth century
by the owner of plat of land in which the
houses stand a retired attorney who had
two nephews. These were Andrew Massey,
my Observation-Disclosures and his
cousin, Ronald Massey. Ronald, who was
generally thought to be his uncie's favorite
and probable heir, was an exceedingly tall
and powerful young man, with fOrbldding
and melancholy expression OF countenance.
AS boy he was singularly backward, and
his incapacity for mental eXertiOn seemed
to develop, as he grew up, into something
not far removed from downright idiocy.
His weakness of mind caused him to be
remarkably subject to the influence Of those
with whom he lived, and i'll particular
his cousin Andrew, my ancestor, was
supposed to exercise over him an
influence almost amounting to faSci-
nation. and to be able to mould him to
all the purposes of an exceptionally vigor-
Gus will. Shortly after the building of the
houses in what is now Weham square the
uncle of these young men died, and Andrew
took possession of all his property under
the provisions. as he asserted, of will, the
eXiStance of which no one except Ronald
had any interest in disputing, and which no
one except Andrew, the sole executor and
devised, ever saw. Shortly before his
uncles death, Ronald had become engaged
to young lady named Lettice White, to
whom he was passiOnatcly attached, and it
was generally supposed among the neigh
borS that upon his accession to the arun-
cular wealth the marriage would take place.
But when barely DECENT interval had oc-
CURED since the old gentleman>s obSiquieS.
the fair Lettuce was led to the altar not by
the impecunious Ronald. but by his more
fortunate cousin, Andrew. The newly
married pair took Up their residence i'll No.
II. and Ronald came to live with them.
When it was represented to Andrew by
some of his few intimate acquaintance
that this arrangement was so singular as
almost to be thought improper, he CURLY
gave them to understand that RonaldS
mental condition was not such as to permit
of his only living relation allowing him TO
live alone, and that he was compelled by
the mereSt considerations of family affection
to take the unfortunate man into his own
household. SO the three lived on i'll the
stately and somewhat gaunt mansion, An
drew collecting his rents with methodical
regularity, and otherwise giving his neigh
bOrS but little concern. AS for Ronald,
there soon came to be little doubt i'll any
any ones mind of his confirmed imbecility.
He appeared seldom, and when he did,
was. for the most part, silent, regarding his
consin and former betrothed with an eX-
preston of the profoundeSt submission,
which at times merged into look of wild
and hardly human apprehension, like Il
terrified brute beast" as it was put by an
old lady who was one of the few friends
occasionally privileged to partake of the
gloomy hospitality of this uncomfortable
establishment Nothing more was ever
known of the condition in which my an
cester, his wife, and his cousin lived, and
and no one was specially interested, when,
about six years after the marriage. Ronald,
who had not been seen for many months,
died, and was buried in frugal manner
Before he had been dead year Andrew
and Lettice suddenly left their house and
took up their abode elsewhere, and after
awhile a tenant was found for No. II.
Thirty years later, the lease of the house
having expired, Andrews son, who had
succeeded to his fathers property, came to
reside there, but not for long. he LETT the
house suddenly after few years. and
rumor went abroad that it was haunted,
probably by the ghost of the unfortunate
Ronald. From this time No. II descended
from father to son. the adjoining property
being sold piecemeal as the family necessi-
ties dictated. Occasionally the successive
freeholdeTS made attempts to live there but
they never Staid more than a few months,
and on each occasion of their removal the
rumors of ghostly possession were renewed.
These, however, would die away, and ten
ants would after a time be found. who
never suffered from any inconvenience.
The last occupation by the owner was that
of my father, who moved into the house
when my sister Patricia was a little girl
After living there a year he left precipi-
lately. but Ellen could give me no particu-
Lars of his reasons for doing so, and knew
only that he disliked any reference to the
house, and never mentioned it himself
The house was now let to stock broker
with a family.
CHAPTER II.
Five years had elapsed since the CONVEX
sation ] related at the beginning of the pre-
vious chapter. My parents had both died.
and Patricia was married and living with
her husband in a provincial town. Nv
career at the museum had been a prosper
Gus one and was now entrusted with a
more responsible and better paid Office The
tenant of No. II Welham square had Just
oi.ao ma ,,ofica of his intention IN daOa,.t