The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-01-20

She was tall and slender, ana wore a
long russell gown of an old fashioned
cut, but her face was pale and sad, with
sharp, clear cut features. and mass of
rough, reddish hair was carelessIv
twisted into long knot at the nape of
her neck.
She motioned me to one of the chairs.
taking the other herself, and she now
sat bending over the fire, apparently too
deep in her own bitter reflections TO be
conscious OF my presence The ex, -es-
sion on her thin, worn face was .ry
sorrowful, and her hands were tightly
clinched in her lap. But, though thin
and worn, her face was still lovely, and
as gazed thought how lovely it would
De were the hollows filled out and the
deep lines s1noothed away.
Suddenly, with little resolute ges-
ture, she turned toward me and began
to speak in low, rapid tones.
II brought you here because wanted
to tell you my story, and | want your
help if you will give it"
Then, with voice rising and falling
with varying emotions, and with deep
gray eyes fixed on my face, she told her
sad tale. The beginning was common
place enough-a beautiful, willful girl;
a stern, unyielding father; two lovers,
one brave and handsome, the other mo-
rose and unattractive; proposed fight:
sudden death; broken heart-the last
three were the tragic elements.
"And l saw them carry him by the
house-dead," she said, speaking in a
strange. dull way, "and for long time
l think | must have lost my senses.
When my father still insisted ON nv
marriage with the wretch he had chosen
for my husband l raised no protest. |
viewed the preparations for the we'd
ding with Indifference. seemed turned
to stone. But a week before the mar
rage my reason returned, and realized
the horror of the coil which was SLOWLY
Tightening around me- Then it was
that determined On what was virtually
living burial. was born in this dear
Old house, and l knew every nook and
Granny of it. My foster mother had
shown me the sliding panel in the room
above that which | then occupied. and |
she and were the only living persons
who knew the secret. She was devoted |
to me, and | at length won her over to |
my plan.
ION the night before my bridal day | |
fed down here, and here have remained |
ever since. For eight years have been
dead to the world. | had valuable
]ewelry which had been my dead moth
er's; that has been gradually sold, and
on the proceeds have subsisted. Nv
foster mother comes daily and brings
me food-not through the house of
course. There is secret path and door
Of communication in the garden
And the ghost?' queried.
oh, she said, with a queer little
smile. Il am the ghost! You see, /
wanted to keep the house empty, SO that
might wander about the rooms and
but now am tired of this un-
natural existence. Life will ALWAYS he
ad for me! have had a dreadful grief
md all my dear ones are dead; but. in
plte OF all my youth reasserts itself, and
olitude has at last lost its charm. Sol
wish to return to the world, and you can
lelp me to do so. Will your"
OF course helped her, and within a
week from that time the Thorpe manor
'ghost''-now laid forever-was safe
Under the kind wing of John Ridgway's
lonely little wife, and by the time the
oses were blooming in my sweet
cented old fashioned garden the
ghost, too, had bloomed into beauty.
nd l, sober old bachelor, had fallen in
ove-quite hopelessly, told myself,
or her heart was with her dead. and
ct it happened that one June afternoon.
S we stood alone by the sundial ON the
Looping shady lawn, something gave me
ourage. Perhaps it was that she
ooked so sweet in her fresh muslin
own, with the flowers in her belt. or :
erhaps because l caught strange.
Getting look in her shy gray eyes; any
ray know she murmured that she .
owed the dear old home with its MANY
ables and pretty garden. Then /
4
NEED you ever leave it?' And look
1g under the broad brimmed garden
at into her flushed happy face l added.
Come, sweet ghost, and haunt the old
lace forever!"
And she consented. Munyon's Maya 3
me.