San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-06-11

admitted, tine house during its years of dis
use had acquired a bad name, and though he
believed me to have no more belief in the su-
pernatural than he had himself, he had no
wish to withhold from me the knowledge of
what would, it must be confessed, from the
vulgar point of view, constitute drawback
to the very substantial kindness he talked of
comforting upon me.
"You are welcome to the house" he said,
"rent free, and will have it done up for you
from top to bottom. 1t shall not cost you
penny piece so long as 1 live, and when am
dead and gone you will be your own land
lord, but l am not going to saddle you with
it under any false pretenses The people who
take care of it say it is haunted. 1t is to their
interest to keep others out of it, and they
have contrived to live there themselves a
good many years in spite of it; but you may
take what they say for whatever you think
it is worth. l am not afraid of you, but
women are weak upon these points, and there
is your wife to consider"
l was obliged to confess that my wife was
not in this respect superior to the rest of her
sex. She might face burglar-she would
certainly not Willingly run the risk of col !
lision with ghost.
land that is why thought it better to in
troduce the subject in her absence l should |
be sorry for her to stand in her own light and |
in yours, if it can be helped, and the chances |
are she would Now my own belief with re-
gard to the Cedars is that there has been
some sort of knavery carried on there for
years, and my object is to get at the bottom
of it and to do you a good turn at the same
time. We can't offer Mrs. Thurnell the house
with the ghost attached to it, with any rea-
sonable hope of her acceptance of it-so
much we may take for granted. The ques-
| ton is, is it worth your while to try and
clear the coast of it before anything is said
to her about it?'
The proposition was an odd one, to say the
least of it, but the game seemed worth
the candle, and l felt, moreover, how
poor a figure | should cut in the
old mans eyes were I to decline it.
What it was he wished me to do precisely, he
was either undecided himself or did not choose
to tell me- but consoled myself with the re-
Election that impostures of the sort he sus-
pected were, as a rule, of the clumsiest, and,
to make a long story short, | accepted the
CedarS on his own conditions. My wife, who
! was told nothing to disquiet her, and who
naturally, therefore, was overcome by the
generosity which was being shown us, &C,
companied Mr.. Van Deckermann over theI
house and was charmed with it, with the
style in which he proposed doing it up, even
with the old furniture slowed away in the
| atties, and which was to supplement our
| own, and it was finally arranged we were to
take possession at Lady day.
1t was not, however, until close upon
Christmas week, which we were going toI
spend, as usual, with my wife's father down
in Sussex, anything more was said of the
private understanding between my new land
! lord and myself; l had been trying to over
come Marys scrupleS about remaining be-
hind with the children, after / was compelled
to return to the office, and as there was an
nually the same little discussion between us,
my unselfsh little woman generally get
ting the better Of it, l was not sur
prised to find that our shrewd old
! friend had reckoned upon this, and was
prepared with suggestion in his own inter
| est. Mrs. Thurnell might, he said, make her
self quite happy about me Snd do him ia
vor at the same time by allowing me to be-
! come his guest for the few evenings l should
otherwise have to spend by myself. The
| longer change could not but be beneficial to
her and to the children, and why should she
not have it? Besides, it was necessary for the
carrying out of what he called our innocent
conspiracy against her that some such ar
rangement should be made. To Mary it
| seemed only a further proof of his kindness
| and consideration, and the invitation, the
curious circumstances of which were known
only to him and to me, was accepted accord
| ingly. 1t was not, however, until had dined
for the first time, tete-a-tete, with Mr. Van
Deckermann, was made aware of what was
expected of me, and shall confess that the
, knowledge did detract somewhat from my
enjoyment of the best glass of Madeira had
ever been privileged TO taste?
The proposition my host had to make to
me was simply this: nall respects but one
was TO be, as my wife had been led to sup
pose, his guest in his own house; that is to
say, was to breakfast with him before
I went cityward in the morning, and
to return TO Woodlands to dine and spend
the evening, but my sleeping quarters were
! to be at the Cedarsl / should thus be in a
position to satisfy myself as to the fitness OF
! the house for the accommodation of my fam
lily, and the absurdity Of the reports which
had been circulated respecting it. We both
knew the folly and credulity ia which such
stories originated, but we knew too tho ras.
cality which not unfrequently took adyan.
tage OF such weakness to answer its nvu7r 49,,