Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-08-03

| Ada; remember that you are all the world
to me; that new life will begin for me
when you are my wife"
Ada sighed, thinking, not gladly, of the
new life that would then begin for her,
but she was thankful to be released by her
imperious lover at the price of kiss or
two, and still more thankful next day to
leave smoky London for smoker Irkham.
Her first letter to her lover was bright
and cheerful enough, full of the details he
said ne cared fora description of Helen's
house in general, of the little sitting-room
set apart for herself in particular, its
chairs, its books, the china plates hung on
the walls, the dainty inkstand, even the
Shakespeare calendar on the writing table,
at which she penned the letter. There
were enough of the trivialities he had
asked for, and not much besides-not
enough affection to Justify the passionate
way in which he kiszed the cold, crisp,
| lifeless paper, nor the fervor with which
he exclaimed under mis- breath: "Un-
worthy as / am, Pll make her kinder
husband than, perhaps, a better man
would. She'll never know what | have
been, and for her sake FL live as purely
as such innocence deserves"
Poor George Walton He had, itseemed,
something in his past life that he
wished to conceal from Ada, and he never
guessed that down in that quiet, simple
heart of hers also there lay little secret,
sad, however innocent He sighed, and
then recalled with bitter look that it was
the day on which he ought to send cer-
tain quarterly remittance, which, though
meanness was not one of his faults, was
never dispatched without curse.
Adas next letter was less cheerful.
'4ou will think me awfully stupid" she
said in it, but have got quite depressed
since | came here. Perhaps it is the eli
mate, which certainly is horrid; nothing
but rain-smoky, dirty, towny rain. But
| have quite horrid impression about
this house | think il was the trees at the
foot of the lawn that gave it to me first.
There are three of them growing all to-
gether-quite large trees for town gar
den, but there is horrid red fungus grow
ing on them that made me feel quite faint
the first time / saw it. / think it was
there got the dreadful feeling l am tell
ing you of can't define it bit yet, but
| am always conscious of it-and it fol-
lowed me up the garden, into the drawing
room-which has long windows opening on
a veranda | think l told you-and even
up to my little boudoir, where l am
writing about it to you. For can't get
rid of it; that's the silly thing. At nj ht
wake up in a sort of horror not that |
have seen anything or dreamed anything,
but | feel asif | were going to hear of
something horrid, and though it is 80 i'd
lotto and unreasonable [ can't get over the
impression. haven't told Helen or John
about it. suppose it must be the eli
mate"
"Of course it's the climate" said Wal
ton, as he read the letter. "The damp,
mild, enervating, soul-and-body destroying
lrkham climate that's making her morbid
| remember it well enough, and how it
seemed to- Ughl it's not worth think
ing of. But | won't let Ada go there
again. Happily, she won't want to. thanks
to this notion"
he wrote testing protest to her, saying
that her ghost story came like the other
Christmas ANIMALS, too long before Christ
mas and after all hadn't even a ghost in
it. "Never mind, little GIRL" he added,
III be with you soon, and be som ething
so real to think of that the cobweb feel
ings' and impressions you speak of will
vanish from your brain. But don't say
anything to 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-though theos-
ophy is in fashion now, and all the clever
young fellows, who would have been rank
materIallsts ten years ago, are seeing Wis
ions and dreaming dreams, and generally
overstepping the bounds that separate
matter and spirit don't want you, my
darling, to be anything but most human,
lovable little wife"
Ada obediently tried to repress her fan
cies, and TO enjoy life as it was lived in
lrkham; but she could not succeed. She
grew more depressed and nervous every
day. Perhaps 1t 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 her own stamp-heaIthy,
happy, animal-Gke 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 spon-
taneous friendliness which was their best
the strange, morbid impression she had
taken up concerning Gore House When
she wrote first to her lover on the subject,
the idea had been vague and underlined;
bnt as the days went on, it gathered clear
ness and conference
II am ashamed" she wrote now, "to
speak to you again of the silly notion /
have got into my head about this house
but promised to tell you everything, and
somehow this fancy seems far more real to
me than any of the solid, tangible things
round me. know almost the whole story
now-and haven't seen anything or heard
anything, nor have mentioned the matter
to soul except you; but vet-I know.
There was murder committed here once
let me speak of the thing as if it had really
happened. A clrild-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 drawing-room
and killed, and then buried under the
trees on the lawn. Is it not horrible2 At
least, it would be horrible if it had ever
happened, and wasn't only dream of my
imagination. | am ashamed to tell you
such nonsence, and yet must speak of it
to somebody, for the consciousness of it
weighs me down, as if / were somehow
connected with the guilty secret"
Good heavens is she going mad ?" Wal
ter asked himself when he read these SEN
fences. 81 know she is absurdly sensitive
to the vaguest impressions and the society
of that unimaginatiye, worldly sister of
hers will drive her more and more III upon
herself And Irkham in December is
enough to make anybody think of murder
and suicide. | must go to her as soon as l
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 on Ada's health and
mind of this strange, morbid fancy of hers.
For he loved her with passion she could
4 IL I