Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-09-04

the bottom of the hill; the irregular
street of shops and houses now
lwindled into a broken line of occa
;ional villas and cottages, the twink
ing lights in the windows Of which
still proved a sufficient guide. The
horse seemed to know the road and
kept up a good pace over the level
ground; so that Armathwaite, keeping
what lookout he could in the blind
ing snowfall and the driving wind, be
gan to think that both hotel-keeper
and ostler had exaggerated the diff
ficulties of his short journey as much
as he himself had over-estimated its
inconvenience. For the fight with
the storm had raised his spirits just
as listening to it's fury from within
snug walls had depressed them, he was
a healthy. warm-b1ooded young fell
low, in chronic state of need of lit
tie gentle spur from without to show
him at his best, but able to give a
good account of himself when the oc-
| casion came.
He rode on in a pleasant sense Of
! mingled excitement and security, IN
/ til, by the slackening of the horses
| pace, he suddenly became aware that
/ the ground was rising. A few PAGES
further the ascent became quite
steep, and he could no longer doubt
that, in spite of the lookout he was
keeping, he had done what he nad
been warned not to do, and taken the
higher road. There was nothing for
it but to go forward very carefully
and to be specially cautious when the
road began to dip again. While still
on the ascent, he passed various
dwellings which, though he could see
nothing Of the buildings themselves
but an occasional light IN the windows.
he judged from the gates and the tall
snoW-laden eyergreens which formed
a screen parallel with the road, to be
villas and ornamental cottages These
were chiefly on the right-hand side.
and they were further apart as the
ground still rose; he then noticed
that the road by which he was travel
ling skirted a hill, which rose up
steep and black on the left He was
keeping, through an instinct of
natural curiosity, sharp watch for
the building which the ostler had
spoken Of as lunatic asylum.
Just as, after a few yards of partic- |
ularly steep ascent, the road took a |
pretty sharp turn to the left, long, |
low-built house standing back only a !
few feet from the road, but on ground |
SO much higher as to give it an i'm /!
posing appearance Of dignity, sprang
quite suddenly into view, and caused |
ArmathWaite to give an instructive |
nod towards it, as he said to himself: |
That's the place!' The house was |
built just where the road, having !
reached it's highest point, began to
descend again. A solid stone wall. |,
about four feet in height at it's com !
mencement, and at least twice as
high at the end where the ground |
sank, rose up straight from the road |
and terminated in a large and heavy |
iron gate, which led into small !
square Of steep and rocky garden !
The front door, approached by a
flight Of steps and adorned with a |
"
the house; so that the side of the |
building which faced the road. with !
it's long row Of smallish upper win
dOws and the bars in front of most |
Of the lower ones, was decidedly that |
of the workhouse or asylum order of
architecture. Two things only broke |
up the monotony Of it's aspect with
out increasing it's cheerfulness; the |
one was a rather unkempt-1ooking
mantle Of ivy which, rising from a
thick stem between two of the lower
windows, spread itself over great |
portion of the upper part; the other
was a very narrow conservatory, built |
barnacle-wise in front of a large win
dow near the garden-end of the house. |
Armathwaite unfastened his lantern |
from the saddle, and checked the !
horse to make a swift examination of |
this misunderstanding residence. Except
at the upper, or servants end, where
the rays of the huge fire streamed
brightly through the barred windows, |
there was only one light to be seen in |
the house; this came dimly and |
weakly through the blurred glass of |
the conservatory. The result of Ar
mathwaite's inspection was the con-
viction that if person not lunatic
were to live there a month in the win
ter-time he would stand a good chance
of being a lunatic by the end of it.
To be continued.