New-York tribune., 1900-12-30

pocket Of my Norfolk jacket
The family is not at home" said the woman
but she took the card between two muscular
iogers and 4 could have danced in my agitation
when ] saw that she was spelling out pencilled
memorandum on the reVerse-"Remember the
AnsOHp" il ran, for recOllected too late that
had pat that card in my packet because we were
Ia pass the Blue Peter Inn, where the bottled
ales were ke:t Then She re9's my name. Be
fore she ended her study sand. as desperate
man;
''You have some highly interesting works Of
what have the family got here. sir?" she said
with respectful ferocty.
The pictures" 4 said. "the-the Bartholomew
van der Hellst
"Ah." she returned dryly. them is ii? Wei.
come in and them. sir"
We wiped our boots ostentatiOusly and meekly
cocoanut fibre mat. She called me sir
but i felt that area sneak was what she
meant the title 10 convey to me. II came home
10 especially when NVette's umbrella got
mixed under the macintosh with mandolin
string which twanceG noisily as we stepped on
the oak boards Of the han.
The hall was almost bare stripped Of all but
a table and the cocoanut mat one loud note
Of color, quite out OF key with the sOmbre space,
was struck by a large three-quarter length por-
trait in Ihe school Of say The Royal Academy
Of 1870
The house struck chin 20 Us as we walked
creaking through its maze of ways. Yvette nest
ing against me. and whispering that we would
a fire in the sitting room If ever we went
< me again. II was a beautiful old house. 1t
might have be IA. that is If only the cheerful
logs had famed up suddenly and cracked and
Missed IN the great hreplaces ! know we should
have claimed IL the AOme We used to dream
Of and furnish with beautiful things made
Of imagnngs. But ore lived there The
rooms We're only places where people had died,
behind drawn curtains, and that a long while
since. But
'The picture gallery" announced the big,
grim woman. turning again entered
IL. and HVctte shrunk from me, nearly dropping
the mandolin. IL was low-ceiled, square room
Of great size with dark shadOWy corners, lit by
three long narrow windows with square panes'
three in row.
in seventeen hundred ana six. The carving along
under the ceiling is considered very fine by
Iggins, who executed likewise those in the
chapel"
She SAID this musingIy. as if il were lesson
long learned that she had not been called upon
10 repeat for many years. Perhaps she hadn't
Her very voice sounded 50 far back in tha, years
that its sadness sounded like reErct for the
second "barrernet" And the pictures
Yvcite caught my arm again and looked in
my eyes 10 see whether we saw the same sight
There We're many frames upon the walls, per
pictures should have smirked and scowled, We're
blind, dnEy white spaces Each picture had
been carefully covered with neatly trimmed
squares of old neWspapeTs-"M Morning Post,
"Standard' and The County Mercury"
The houseke ePer's WAS moment OF sombre
triumph. Then standing under the largest
"'Apperodyty surrounded by ferns and
gracies,' by Rubens, Civ to the second barrernet
But" ! gasped. don't those papers come
'No'' she replied firmly, they're summed on
IT do1t hurt them
But can't We see them?" / said. Are they
always
Yes they're always she answered firmly.
You wouldn't like this lady you We brought
here 10 a picture like Rubens; I'm sure you
wouldn't wish The graCieS are the
shame lessest. IN Sir Georges time Lord Byron
10 look at those gr3cleS, ana you must
have read what he Was. Come, SIT.
We stood in amaZement while she moved on
10 the next picture. She would not abate a
word Of her ancient duty "GOby0n Tuke, Esq,
in-a-full-Suit-Of- -harmer-dOne-b -by-liolblnE
-and-attriiuted-tO -him-buider-of -the-old
hall -in-one- -hve-four-one- anna-domlno
Wouldn't you like US to see him. asked
YVette cautiously.
'slo rna'am" was tie decisive answer. He
was a prosecutor Of the Wesleyans. II not, ask
you-Nhy the harmer?"
I remember little more that the grim woman
said hut We halted before each picture, ana the
history of each picture was summarized IN be
wildcring fashion. one ancestor was denied Us
because he drank. the cffigy lurking under news
paDers being appealed TO for cOrrobOTatiOn posi-
tive We were almost sorry that we inquired
the reasons for shTOudmg Mistress Bridget ana
Mistress Angela Tuke, 10y knellerd and Ley,
FOR these reasons dealt with the costume or the
Restoration period, and were given in no mine
ing fashion.
Then ] think re came away, leaving one OF
our last two shilling pieces in the waste Of her
great pale hand, whence il disappeared, appar-
entity absorbed into the sy stem and we We're
conducted out and seen OF the premises win
distrustful coughs delivered through an en-
lrasllre in her stout fingers.
The door changed. aud NVetfe selZlng my haho
with the one unoccupieG with her macintosh