The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-06-16

ever innocent. He sighed. and then re-
called with a bitter look that it was the
day on which he ought to send a certain
quarterly remittance, which though mean
ness was not one of his faults, was never
dispatched without a curse.
Ada's next letter was less cheerful. "YOu
will think me awfully stupid she said in
it, but 1 have got quite depressed since 1
came here. Perhaps it is the climate,
which certainly is horrid; nothing but
rain-smoky,, dirty. towny rain. But L
have quite a horrid impression abont this
house,; L think it was the trees at the foot
of the lawn that gave it to Inc first. There
are three of them growing all together
quite large trees for a town garden. but
there is a horrid red fungus growing or them
that made me feel quite faint the first timeI
saw 1T. L think 1t was there | got the
dreadful feeling. | nm telling you of
can't define it a bit yet, but / am always
conscious of it-and it followed me up to
the garden, into the drawing-room-which
think ! told you-and even up to my little
boudoir, where l am writing about it to
you. For l can't. get rid of it; that's the
silly thing. AT night l wake up in a start
OF horror; not that l have seen anything or
dreamed anything, but l feel as if l were
going to hear of something horrid. and
though it is so idiotic and unreasonable, /
can't get over the impression. l haven't
told Helen or John about it. / suppose it
must be the climate"
"Of course it's the climate said Walton,
as he read the letter. The damp, mild,
enervating, Observation-Disclosures Irk-
ham climate that's making her morbid. /
remember 1T we'll enough, and how it
seemed tough! it's not worth thinking of.
But | won't let Ada go there again. Hap.
ton
He wrote a testing protest to her. saying
Christmas ANIMALS, too long before Christ
mas. and after all hadn't even a ghost in it.
Never mind. little girl" he added. "PH be
with you soon, and be something SO real to
think of that the cobweb feelings and
impressions you speak of will vanish from
your sister or her husband that will put
them out of love with their house when
they. have Just got comfortably settled in
it. after spending SO much on making it
pretty. Besides-th0ugh th%eOsophy is in
fashion now, and all the clever young fell
laws. who would have been rank material
lists ten years ago, are seeing visions and
dreaming dreams. and generally overstep-
ping the ponnds that separate matter and
splrlt-.l don't want you, my darling, to be
wife"
Ada Obediently tried to repress her fan
cies and to enjoy life as it was lived in Irk-
ham; but she could not succeed. She grew
more depressed and nervous every day.
Perhaps it was indeed the climate that
weakened her; perhaps she felt a certain
loneliness even with Helen, who had now
plenty of friends among young matrOns of
like creatures for the most part. who liked
their husbands much, and their houses
more, and their smart clothes most of all.
Ada felt lonely among them, in spite of
their treating. her with a spontaneous
friendliness which was their best charac-
~teristic, and her loneliness deepened the
strange. morbid impression she bad taken
up con corning Gore House. When she
wrote first to her lover on the subject, the
idea had been vague and undefined; but, as
the days went on, it gathered clearness and
conference.
II am ashamed" she wrote now. ito speak
to you again of the silly notion ! nave got
into my head about this house; but l prom
this fancy seems tar more real to me than
any of the solid, tangible things oun me.
l know almost the whole story nOw-and i
haven't seen anything or heard anything,
nor have l mentioned the matter to a soul
except you; but yeti know. There was a
murder committed here once-let me speak
of the thing as if it had really happened. A
child. just fancy, George, a poor, innocent
little child-was taken out of the room that
is now my boudOir and carried down stairs
into the d-rawing-rOOm u killed, and then
buried under the trees Oh the lawn. Is it
not hOrriblef At least. it would be horrible
if it had ever happened, and wasn't only a
dream OF my imagination. l am ashamed
10 ttil you SlCu- nOuScuSc, anu you i muSC
speak of it to somebody, for the conscious
ness of it weighs me down, as if l were
somehow connected with the guilty secret"
Good heavens! Is she going made" Wal
ton asked himself when he read these SEN
fences. Il know she is absurdly sensitive
to the vaguest Impressions, and the society
of that unimaginative, worldly sister of
hers will be driving her more and more in
upon herself. And Irkham in December is
enough in itself to make any body think of
mnrdQr and GnIoJdQ mnct m IN hQr q q
soon as ! can, and I'll bring her away with
me the day after Christmas, and if / can
help it she'll never enter the place again.
Helen can come to London if she wants to
see her."
He was seriously alarmed thinking of the
possible effect or Ada's health and mind of
this strange morbid fancy of hers. For he
loved her with q passion she could hardly
have understood, and felt as if the one ray
of light that frightened his path would be
quenched if anythingprevented her becom-
ing his wife. So he got a timetable, and,
having studied it. took the first train to
Irkham, determined to see Ada at once and
cure her OF her gloomy notions by MS pres
ence and the power of his love.
CHAPTER III.
There was trouble in the Baggallay
household. The parlOr-maid, with that
lack of consideration for her mistress's con-
venience which Helen looked upon as char
acteristic of the servant class. sprained her
ankle a few days before Christmas. An
other equally competent domestic was not
to be got at q moments notice, and Mrs.
Baggallay had issued invitations for a din
ner party On Christmas eve, when she
proposed to introduce her sisters betrothed
to her especial friends. Helen was in de-
spair; she felt that fate was using her un-
kindly, and in her depression was glad to
listen to q suggestion of the girls, who in
her turn did not wish to lose a comfort
able situation. She had a widowed sister.
a Mrs. Wallwork-evidently, from the way
she spoke of her, the member of her family
who had got on"-whO might, if she was
asked courteously enough. condescend to
take her place till she was able to fill it
again.
You know, ma'am, my sister isn't quite
like one of us. She's a good bit older than
me, and has always held her head high"
explained the girl. She was always we'll
thought of in her places, and one of her
families left her an annuity. SO. of course,
she has a right to think something of her
self. But I've no doubt she'll come for a
day OF two, to oblige me, if only You don't
mind putting it to her as a bit of a favor"
Helen did not mind putting it as a con-
descensiOn on the part of Mrs. Wallwork,
if only she would come, and she had already
learned hat in the north country the work.
ing classes look upon themselves as the salt