Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1894-10-21

1
But the manner in which. this casual
piece OF Information was received took
him altogether by surprise. Grove was
greatly disturbed by it.
"Somebody banging at the garden
doorr' he exclaimed. "NIlss Priscilla.
| I'll be bound 1t could not be anybody
else. She will be getting In next, she
will be coming into the house. Is the
door kept locked?"
Eyes, it is locked answered George,
"but it is very ricketty. A good KICK
would send it flying 10.
Although Grove could hardly have
suspected Aunt Priscilla OF kicking
the door in, he was still further alarmed.
He thought OF briblng the gardener to
! barricade IL, but abandoned the idea,
owing to the danger of encouraging the
man about the premises. At length
George came to his relief He promised
| to attend TO the matter himself.
But il was ona thing to send mes
sage to Hattie, aud quite another to
| speak to her face to face as be ionged
! to do. For various reasons, some OF
them not very clearly defined, he was
! growing more and more anxious about
her every day. 1t struck him as being
! a strange circumstance that the mes
sage which she had sent back, after
hearing that he had not been drowned
as she must have thought, should have
! been 50 disappointing, so painfully I'M
sympathetic, so unlike herself. de
tried to explain this fact by supposing
Grove not to be very intelligent mes
senger, but the explanation was unsat.
isfactory. Do what he would, he could
not repress feeling of alarm.
Then, again, why should the Priory
carriage be going TO his home? de
| happened TO be u in the tower when II
passed, and he saw it stop al the cot
tage, and then some old lady, whom he
took to be Mrs. Grove, got out. To bis
knowledge, Mrs. Grove had never
visited mis- parents before; why should
she do so now? The very novelty Of
the thing disquieted him.
He was so intent upon watching that
be forgot his usual caution, and leaned
out through one Of the EN- brasures. he
had no idea that he had been seen, but
hearing a slight footstep on the path
below he drew in his head. A few mo-
ments later the garden door was
| sQdh6u NlOl0ully uShlu ouh 0bN AA
shaken with a determination which in d.
stantly suggested Aunt Priscilla out
side. Knowing it not to be very strong,
George felt IL time to be going. He fed
! into the house, and running upstairs
entered a bedroom with window
which afforded glimpses Of the Gorragh
road.
The room was the one which had
! formerly occupied-which l sometimes
occupied still. 1t had been left exactly
as had left it on that disastrous night.
when l took my owe life, vainly think
! ing thus to atone for the other life which
l had taken before. Ny mother would
never allow a thing in the room TO DO
| disturbed, except OF course for cleaning
| purposes. Blankets, sheets and coun-
terpaAes were still upon the bed; my
! books were upon the shelves and my
| pictures upon the walls; the table was
| Uttered with my nicknacs. But the dust
lay thickly upon them all, for there was
! no longer any one TO see that IL was re-
moved. My father did not trouble him
! self much about dust. When he hap
pened to notice it upon some book which
! he wished to read he blew it off, II that
| did not suffice he scrubbed the cover
with an antimacassar. Then he was
well pleased. My father had some
! unitarian ideas, but much as my poor
mother loved him, his treatment OF an
| timacassars used TO give her many
| shock.
But as he never entered my room he
could not well be held responsible for
| its condition, especially as the deaf old
woman whom he had retained as a SER
want would not go near II. Though
George had peeped in several times he
had never actually been inside before.
| He would not have been there now but
tor the Priory carriage, though he could
see very little of it from the window,
only glimpse now and then as 1t rum
bled back towards the town. Still
there was some excitement in watching
for il and wondering what had been its
errand, and George was badly In need
of excitement 10 distract his thoughts.
When the carriage had gone by, he
| began TO wander aimlessly round the
room, inspecting the various things
that were lying about. Knowing that
they had belonged TO me, he regarded
them with sort OF awe. He did not
touch any of them, merely looked at
each iu.turn and then passed on. In
this way he arrived at the cupboard.
The door was closed, but some feeling
of curiosity prompted him to open IL.
| He had no sooner done so than he start
ed back, white-faced and trembling, for
on the shelf In front Of him was an
empty phial labelled Poison" the
cork still lying by its side,
Certain words which had once been
spoken in his hearing, though he had
repealed them at the time, rushed into
his mind again. Had not Grove sug-
gested that il was who had murdered
! Henry Willmott, aud that my sudden
death had really been snicide? And
here, In the very room which l had
occupied-the very room In which my
body had been found-was bottle
which contained poison, the cork by its
side indicating its recent use and per-
haps even some degree OF haste!
There were so many conflicting
thoughts in Georges tnind that he
never could afterwards say which was
uppermost He only knew that he must
escape from that dreadful room with
/ It's StlulnR atmosphere, duu uoNoA OuSo
pausing to look back be fled downstairs.
But the secret which be had discovered
seemed TO be burning his brain; be
could not keep it to himself; he
felt compelled to take some one into his
confidence, so that be might turn il
I over and talk about it, So be sought
out Ben Fale, took him into the dining
room, aud there told him.
"Hu:rah, Mr.. George!" cried Ben, his
With daliuht