The Irish standard., 1892-10-22

appear cheerf ii. !n Is.
L ward anxiety and nervot,slless, vh ne
Z Mr.. Birchmore conversed with a#volu-
bility and tiscursiv eness greater than =
had ever. remarked IN him before.
The farmhouse stood quite alone on
an unfrequented by-road, in little angle
of the hills. 1t was not exactly q plctur-
esaue building. with it's four walls COW
cred with rough plaster and pierced
with dozens Of small windows, and its
enormous red tiled roof, with those
quaint, narrow apertures. like half open
ed eyes, disclosing single pane OF glass,
which do duty as dor1ners. ltstoos! hush
with the road. as German houses are
fond OF doing: but behind was large
inclosed f;srnlyard, roughly paved with
round stones and well walled in. The
front door, though rather pretentiously
painted and ornamented with some re-
ligious versicle or other written upon
the Intel was not used ais 4 means OF
entrance or exit.
1t was, as afterward discovered, not
only locked and bolted. but actually
screwed up OH the inside, and the only
way Of getting into the house was by a
side door opening into the courtyard.
AS the courtyard itself was provided
with a heavy gate. you will see that the
farmhouse close to the road though it
was, was by no means SO easy of ingress
or egress as it sppeared-supposing. Of
course that it was the hu1nor of the in
mates to declare state of siege. | men
ton these particulars merely by the way,
they are common to three houses out OF
five in this region -
The Birchnores' luggage had. it ap-
reared, already been carried over fro1;l
the hotel: but man in rough peasants
costume, who announced himself as tho
master of the house, now came out to
take charge Of my trunk. was. or
fancied myself las you may have
noticed). a quick judge Of faces. and
this peasants face failed to commend
itself to me. 1t was at once heavy and
gloomy, while a scar at one corner OF
his mouth caused that feature to twist
itself into perfunctory gri1nace, gro
tesquely at variance with his normal ex-
preston In person he was much above
the common size, and to judge by the
ease with which he slung his heavy
trunk over his shoulder, he must have
been as strong as August der Starke
himself, whose brazen statue do.nineers
over the market place in Dresden.
"Guten norgen. Herr Rudolph said
Slurk. mailing this giant affably The
two seemed to be. on some sort OF terms
Of comradeshlp. having perhaps struck
up an acquaintance during the previous
negotiations for lodgings. | must say
they looked to me to be not i'll matched
pair
We alighted and were welcomed in
with surly courtesy by Herr Rudolph.
Kate, confessing to headache, went at
once TO her room, whence she did not
again emerge; S1urk disappeared into
the kitchen regions with the landlord;
Mr.. Birchmore presently went out for
stroll before dinner, and /, finding my
self thrown temporarily on my own
resources, decided to make a virtue OF
my loneliness by writing some letters
which had been long owing. ! accord
ingly CROPPED my way up the darksome
stone staircase and SO along an eccentric
passage to my room.
did not know then nor could even
now accurately describe the arrange
1nent of rooms in that farmhouse. There
were ut least three separate passages.
not running at right angles to one an
other, but seeming to wander about ir-
regularly. now and then turning awk-
ward corners. descending or ascending
short flights Of steps or eddying into a
little cul de sac, with perhaps only
closet door at the end of it. The cOnse-
quence was it was nearly impossible to
say whose room adjoined whose. 1t
might be a long distance from one to
another measured along the passage,
and yet they might actually be separated
only by the thickness Of wall. Where
the farmer and his family slept | know
not, but have reason to believe that all
our party, including Slurk, We're accom-
modated upon the same floor.
On opening the door of my room |
found some one already there. This, per-
son was comedy young woman. the
farmers daughter evidently, busy in the
benevolent occupation of putting things
in order She had moved my trunk be-
meath tho window. she had put fresh
water in the ever, she had Strengthened
out the slips of drugget on the rough
board floor. she had placed some flowers
in the window, and she was now en-
gagged in tucking a clean sheet on the
bed. said she was comely; on second
look she was better than that. She was
positively pretty. with the innocent,