The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-10-22
A LIVE GHOST.

Try Inn Tor conveyance 60 MoreIon grange,
where she was going to earn her living.
She was sick of the bread of dependence.
Yet just now she felt bewildered and
strange. The only clew she had to follow
was brief advertisement in the newspa-
pers, and that had led her hither.
SIS Moreton Grange very far?"
f'Four miles, miss
sit must be very lonely"
81 wouldn't like to live there"
"Why not?''
swell, miss, there amt no accountin
for them things, but people do tell strange
stories about the grange bein haunted''
The grange, as Marian Couchley first
saw it, by the light of faint spring moon,
was glaring red brick house, its northern
gables entirely draped with ivy and its
ehimneys secluded from sight of the road
by dense growing evergreens. Mrs More
ton was on the steps to greet the newcomer
IA fair pallid old lady.
II am glad to see you, my dear, " she
said. 'You must have had dreary ride. )"
And Marian knew that she should love
her employer.
All the jewellers in the roony mansion,
except the servants, were Mrs. Moreton,
her son Aidebert and herself.
Aldebert Moreton-the name was like
knight of romance, and so was its owner.
81 hope you like your room, miss said
the apartment to which she had conducted
| Miss Couchley.
cit is beautiful room,'' said Marian.
feTell me what is it about this house being
| haunteds'
People will talk, miss" Mrs. Brett
| said, land it's small use tryin to stop 'em,
! and the truth is strange things have hap
! pened in this house, although it's haunted
| by nothin worse than sad memories.
Master Aldebert is the last and youngest
of three as noblo boys as ever made an old
place glad
tAnd what has become of the others?''
"The eldest is dead,' Mrs. Brett an
swered in whisper. ''He lies in bloody
grave, stricken down by the hand of his
own brother in a sudden fit of passion.
| Poor Mr.. Hugh! He fed the country TO
escape from justice and died in England.
! 1t nearly killed my mistress. There's her
bell now, and 7 must go.'
So this was the history of Moreton
| Grange Marian shuddered as she sat
alone by the fire, fancying the cry of a
murdered man in every sigh of the wind.
She was sitting at her window one
| moonlight night in July, long after the
family had retired, when something white
and spectral glided across the luminous
space on the lawn-the figure of tall
| man.
1.-The g,ost!'' she gasped inaudibly.
'The ghost!''
Nor did she rest until she had taken
refuge in Mrs. AIoreton's room.
The old lady listened to her tale with
| trembling silence.
my desr,'' said she, ''you are mistak-
| en-. The jewellers of another world are
| never allowed to come back to haunt this
You were asleep-you dreamed uncon-
sciously.'
She shuddered as she spoke Mrs. More
ton soothed, explained and coaxed, but in
vain. Marian would not even go back to
her own room alone.
81 will go with you, my dear" said the
As they stepped out into the hall Marian
uttered piercing cry. There, full before
them, stood the ghost
Mrs. Morcton drew Marian back into
her room, shut and locked the door and
sank trembling on the sofa.
''Did not tell you?'' faltered Marian
GLOW can you explain away this?'
Mrs. Moreton had no word of answer.
She could only rock herself backward and
forward, moaning like one in pain.
You must not go from this room to-
night, child, she said. Lie down upon
my bed and try to rest
At the breakfast table Aldebert was
pale and strangely agiuatcd, and his moth
or looked wistfully up in his face as he en-
CSIGu I1O EOUuCo Slightly
''At last, - he said.
"Thank Godu' Mrs Moreton lnurlnured
Marian went to Mrs. Moreton as soon as
Aldebert had withdrawn and falteringly
impaired to her her resolve to leave More
ton Grange The shock her nervous sys-
tenn had received rendered it impossible for
her to remain.
Mrs. Moreton listened in silence.
'Aldebert," she said to her son. who at
| That r,OIoeuE aT7tore6 Miss Eo11cbIaxy i-
going to leave u.s."
''To leave usl Why?''
She saw-the ghost last night''
''She will never see it again." said AL
debert sadly. Marian"-he had never
called her Marian before-''wi you come
| with me?''
He I'D her to darkened apartment il
che disused portion of the old grange,
where, upon q canopied couch, a corpse
lay, robed in the garments of the gravel
There is the ghost you saw, Marian, -
he said
"Who is it?'' she faltered.
my brother Hugh, who has long dwelt
concealed within these walls that wit
messed his crime and his daily atonement
of remorse and who is at length set free
by the great Pardoner.
''He used to seek air and exercise at
night, and the people, who had fancied
him dead long ago, believed, from an &C
casionsl glimpse of him, that the grange
was haunted. The long deception is over
at last, and the poor prisoner is set free.
Last night he roamed out, half delirious,
returning only to die.
Marian, - pursued Aldebert in a low,
earnest voice, ''you will not leave the
grange now?''
Il will stay she answered.
And from the wedding day of the last
heir of Moreton Grange newer, brighton
life dawned upon the old place. AS the
years crept on and the sound of little chill
dren's voices made music around the gray
walls the shadows fled away, and no one,
save Aldebert and his WIFE, ever knew
where the murderer was laid to rest after
his long penance of solitude and remorse.
Exchange.