Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1908-11-12
THE MYSTERIOUS
MIRROR
By HARRISON GRAVES
. @fSS.1'-fsS-s~N~S~'~-H
(CopyriEht, by Shortstory Pub. Coz

Late in January, few years ago,
I was married to the girl whom
thought, and still think, the most
charming and beautiful in all the
world. On the afternoon of our mar
siage day we started on a long, lei
surely journey through the south.
The eve of the Mardi Gras festival
found us in New Orleans after a lazy
TiGe upon a steamboat from Mem
phis.
Luckily I had written some weeks
previous for apartments which l had
occupied once before upon a similar
occasion, and We experienced none of
the annoyances incident to packed
hotels. The house where We were to
stay was a long. irregular. struggling
mansion, set back from the street up
on the Bayou ST. Jean. Along the
front ran wide veranda supported
by round brick pillars. now somewhat
&Tumbled, on which rosevines massed
IN wild luXuriance. It was a house
of the old city, which, being aban-
doned, had fallen into decay. Ten
years before an old, white-haired ere
ole had patched up one end of it, dry
ing the rooms and furnishing them
comfortably. AS the building was
piped for gas, and the old man had
put in electric bells, it was Just the
romantic sort of place loved.
The larger part of the mansion, I'M
touched by the present owner, re-
manned in the same dilapidated state
tn which he had found it. A sense
of potential mystery lurked in the
dark, low passages and damp, moul-
dy rooms. But since the old creole,
Matt Favreau. told US himself that
that part of the house was solidly
locked and the windows barred,
smiled when my wife looked down one
passage that ran from our hall into
IT, and told her there was nothing to
fear. The house had not even the
reputation of sheltering spooks.
The afternoon we spent in driving
about the city. already gay in antici-
patton of the evening when King Ko-
mo should come with his Krewe.
OF the suite which we had, one OF
the rooms served as a dressing room,
and its dainty little mahogany table
and long pier-glass had caused my
wife upon entering it to burst into
Tapturous EXPLANATIONS.
The room next to it, and the front
one of the apartments, looked out of
the house where the tangled garden
lay, and down the street This street
ended at the wall OF the garden, for
the bayou had made further advance
impossible, and from the window we
could look along the street for several
squares to where it joined at right
angles one of the buster thorough
fares.
After finishing our dinner we en-
tered the dressing-room to dress for
the evening. Upon one of the little
tables, covered with a piece of Next
can drawn-work, my wife laid the
Jewels she was to wear at the ball
The chief of these was a magnificent
necklace of pearls, given her upon
her wedding day by her father; and
beside this she placed my own gift of
a diamond clasp. and three or four
rings, among them a large, heart
shaped opal. burning with incessant
changes of rainbow color. When she
took this last from her jewel case,
she pursed her lips thoughtfully for
a moment, and then said she did not
know whether to wear it. 1t would
bring bad luck, she knew. for when
ever she had worn 1t before something
had always happened.
Yes" 1 laughed, Didn't you have
it on when asked you to marry me?"
THE ideal" she exclaimed, Il had
on only a turquoise. Well, I'll wear
1T. It's such beauty-but lock the
door, dear. This old housewife
knows?" She continued, opening her
eyes ominously, land then there are
darkies around"
/ laughed again. But she persisted,
and locked the door leading from
our rooms into the hall. small
transom, above the dressing-room
door, l closed, but as there was no
screw attached to the rod | could
not fasten it more securely This
caused her some unrest, until point
ed out that not even a child could
crawl through it.
We began to chat of the ball and the
carnival. After a while there drifted
through the windows of the other
room the noise of the first jewellers
and the crash of band. We both
rushed to the front, like excited chill
dren. At the interval where the
thoroughfare joined our quiet street
we could see the fare of torches and
dark, moving pictures, a tumble of
people and lights. -