Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1902-04-15
CHAPTER II.

/ frequently looked in upon the
ladies at Timperley Hall, and took
four-o' clock cup of tea with them (not,
however, to th neglect of other, if less
pleasant, parochial visitations). Dur
ing these visits we talked without that
constraint which somehow Mr.. Stein
hardt's presence imposed upon US.
Miss Lacroix and l agreed in our opin-
ions concerning the ruthlessness with
which Lancashire pushed on its indus
trial way: we often astonished poor
Mrs. Steinhardt sometimes even our
selves) by the warmth with which we
would discuss the outrage done to man
and nature.
One afternoon we talked thus. 1t
was we'll ON in springtime; the stream
was running full and all nature, in
spite of drawbacks, was striving to look
green. told them how that morning
had stood by the little plank bridge
Just below Timperley Hall, looking
across at the dreadfully numbered little
peninsula on which the ruined spinning
mill stood, when there turned up at my
elbow an old man whom I knew by
sight as an ex-handloom weaver.
ga fine brook, that, parson," he
said.
eyes," said I, suiting my reply to
what thought his persihage; "what
pity no trout seem to know of it,"
"Ah, but," said he, sadly, "there
we're trout in it wonst; though there's
been none for mony a day. Trout!
Aw defy onything to live in that, bout
gettin' cured first, like red herrin' or
a sallymander! There was a lad
drowned like as it might be this spring,
and he were never found till like as it
might be next back end, down theer in
that mud; he were not gone at all, but
he were cured thro' and thro'; black,
mon-black!"
This told; and then I continued:
"Drowning, they say, is an easy death;
but to drown in such stream as that
seems horribly repulsive. I fancy no
one would care to commit suicide in it."
perceived my stupid blunder as
soon as I had spoken; 1 had not
thought that what said could be taken
as "allusive" to the disappearance of
Mr.. LacroiX.
Excuse me-" said Miss Lacroix, ris-
ing hurriedly, 81 do not feel very we'll.
Do not come, Mrs. Steinhardt; I shall
get better by myself"
of course made apology to Mrs.
Steinhardt for my stupidity.
eyes," said she; "you see she can't
bear any kind of allusion to her
fathers end. She told me soon after
she came here (she couldn't, you know,
go on living in that big house up there
all by herself)-she told me strange
dream she had once or twice when her
father was missing-the strangest thing,
but scolded her so, she has never said
another word to me about it. Still I
fancy she thinks great deal about her
father, though she does not say much !;
they were rare and fond O. one another"
That very evening l unexpectedly
learned from Miss Lacroix herself what
that strange dream was. was return
ing by moonlight from the house of a
parishioner along that same road which
first brought me upon the valley. Pass
ing the pond on my right (Which l be-
fore mentioned as rejecting the lighted
windows of the many storeyed milD, 1
observed a figure, cloaked and hooded
standing on the margin of the pond
under one of the trees. paused a
minute, while my heart beat with ap-
prehension, and then I passed through
gap in the fence and approached.
| The figure turned q Quickly. as if impa-