Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-08-05
CHAPTER XXXVH
For HaDDineSS
For Happiness
IA n AIRY obeyed unqueStiOnably; she
M shut her eyes tightly and wondered


M shut her eyes tightly and wondered
what she ought to wish.
For love? But that had already passed
her by! For riches? 1t was so unlikely
that she would ever have them! For what,
then, could she wish? Happiness? 1t al
most seemed as if someone put the thought
into her head as she stood there by David
Bretherton's SIDE with the moonlight bar
ring the polished floor at their feet.
She gave little sigh.
Il wish for happiness, then" she said.
BrethertOn laughed.
"You ought not to have told me; you
must speak your wish to anybody"
He pushed open the door, and then entered
There a faint, musty smell of dis
used rOoms a sort of chilly dampness made
Mary SILVER as she followed David into the
darkness.
They had entered sort of wide CORR
DOR at one end of which the tall, painted
pipes of an-~Organ rose to the very ceiling.
This used to be the old music gallery"
Bretherton said; land it is chiefly here, too,
that the ghost lady is supposed to walk"
"Oh!" said Mary softly. She looked
round her with wide eyes
There was something depressing to her
in the darkness and silence; she began to
think of the men and women-dead long
snce-who had walked the oaken floors
and made the old place echo with the sound
of their voices.
1t seemed strange that none of them
would ever come there again; strange, too,
to think that some day she and David would
be dead they and others would be
taking their place in the world and per-
haps standing where they stood now.
She fancied that she could even a
phantom figure in the organ seat; hear the
soft pure strains of music issuing from
those painted pipes.
"DOesn' doesn't anyone ever <use it
now" she asked.
JJnconSciously she spoke in whisper:
David shook his head.
at hasn't been touched for years. There
are other rooms further on. Shall We go?"
His steps echoed holloway he led the
way; there so little furniture and
curtains at all at the high windows.
/ Here and there the outline of old
high-back chair stood out of a corner; or
the ghost-shape Of a folding card-tabe,
with quantity dubbed feet and slender legs.
eff this were my house" said Mary sud-
denly, 81 should live in this part of tits
much more beautiful than the other wing.
1t only wants the windows open, and big
fires, and" She broke off, conscious of
his eyes bent upon her. II ought not to
have said that" she added in confusion.
'You do live here, don't your" said
David, smilingly.
A low archway led to smaller, narrow
er room.
eve ought to have a light to see the
carving here properly" he added in more
moment while 1 find one? There used to
be candles kept in the organ-lOft.'
He walked away without waiting for her
to speak.
Mary stood there in the darkness, listen
ing to the sound of his footsteps. She was
conscious of a sort of timidity all at
now she knew herself to be alone. She
wished he had not left her; she felt almost
inclined to call out to him. but bit her lip
to check the desire.
His steps had quite died away now, and
there momentary silence, followed by
the hollow banging of distant door.
Mary started violently; she took a step
forward, then stopped.
How absurd to be nervous! He would
be back in a moment. Of course, he had
not left her for more than a moment. But
she counted each second by her racing
heart-beats.
The patch of moonlight coming through
the archway leading to the long mushroom
seemed to fill the whole place with shad
dows. She remembered that David had said
it here that the ghost lady walked.
The ghost lady only came when shame
or disgrace threatened the family. Panic
seized her: she took step forward.
David" She thought she cried his