The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1905-02-22
called "a which is drawn through
an ordinary plow furrow and crowds
the loose earth to the sides.
The PENSION GHOST


morning.
but where shall we STOP? asked my
wife. for our travelled friends in be-
queathing US the legacy of their Euro
pean experience had left us the adj
dresses of no lodging in this little
town
perhaps the guidebook will help us
OUT l suggested
| Somewhat to my surprise, the guide
book mentioned our out of the way
town and named it's dozen of hotels
and pensions One of the latter we
chose.
1t was still light when we reached
the border of France and drew into our
station.
Here there were several liyeried men,
with the names of their respective no
! tells lettered across the fronts of their
caps and throwing open the doors OF
their conveyances with great flourish
of hospitality.
| There were more unliveried men who
thronged about us, each manifesting
the utmost eagerness to relieve us of
! our luggage.
To one of these l surrendered our
bags and gave him the address to
which he should take them.
We had not far to follow him. He
| took us through turn in the road and
soon deposited our bags upon the
threshold of our lodging.
Here we were beamingly received by
| of @hA
indeed, as if we were long looked for
guests.
| Madame wore an old black silk dress,
which still bore the stamp of its Pa
risian origin. She carried bunch of
keys, which she jingled as she talked.
Yes, madame had rooms, two of them
there was large one, with smaller
one adjoining. She would show them
| to us.
| Very modest appearing apartments
they were that we were shown into,
| yet upon the subject of their faded pa
| perings and unstable upholstery madame
was eloquent. l managed to under
stand the drift of her discourse, ma
DANES expressive gestures explaining
much of her fluent French, but what
was this about-''les cheveux blonde,
! lie clair de la lune'' and "le parfum des
feurs?"
what does she say?' asked my
wife.
"Oh, something about yellow hair
and moonlight and flowers" / some
what confusedly interpreted.
What could madame mean? But that
lady was now bowling herself away be-
fore her admiring audience, and a
small boy bearing our baggage enter
ed and left it on the floor.
| looked at my wife.
Evidently they mean us to have
these roOms," 1 said.
My wife did not answer. Suddenly
she began:
Long ago beautiful maiden occu-
| pied this chamber, and here her lover
was in the habit of visiting her, bring
ing with him bouquets of heliotrope,
the maiden's favorite flower One day
as she rested upon a couch awaiting
| his arrival her lover stole in and pre-
sented her with a bouquet AS the
maiden bent her head to inhale the
fragrance her false lover thrust a dag
| ger in her neck and fed, pulling down
her long hair over the wound.
THE room is said to be still the
scene of the maiden's visitation"
In the course of our travels I had be-
come used to my wife's random read
| ings from the guidebook.
| She now looked up from the book.
'"Ihis roomp' she exclaimed, with
enthusiasm.
"She must have been a young woman
Of uncommonly bad taste to have oc-
cupied this ROOM" l remarked. 81
| should judge it to have been the cause
| of her death but for the contrary evil
dence of history"
But the romantic tale in connection
with our chamber must have excited
my wife's imagination, for she sat up
on the little lounge and gazed out on
the gathering dusk until the moon
light began to cast faint shadows upon
the lawn below.
How delightful it would be to meet
ghost!' unused my wife.
] did not want to seem unsympathet-
ic, so | stiied a yawn and with all the
interest l could summon responded:
Eyes"
IF you should display such ANNA
ton on meeting one I'm sure the ghost
would cut you Immediately after the
Introduction
With this rejoinder my wife took one
of the candles I had lit and carried 1t
to her room.
l was soon asleep.
In the night awoke and found my
room flooded with moonlight. A raw
from the moon had probably fallen
upon my face and wakened me-that or
something else
What?
I turned uneasily in my bed. My
mind seemed possessed with strange
idea. Some one was in the room.
was conscious of subtle fragrance
permeating the air. 1t was the odor
of heliotrope. recalled the story Of