Year: 1877

Some friends Of mine who had been
spending the Summer at one OF the most
fashionable Watering places, had come
back with a strange story about an invalid
whom they recommended To me as an
interesting patient. AS listened to their
description, which my filth in their We
racity compelled me to believe, | said to
myself that the case was one of those ex-
ceptionally strange ones that defy the
wisdom of the physician, and whose hid
den causes are never revealed, SO far ms
the eyes of this world are concerned.


Nevertheless | made up my mind that
when circumstances were favorable, |
would run down and take look Mt Lncy
Lot-that was the invaid's name. 1t
was the middle of n severe Winter before
/ was able to do 50 the circumstances
that gave me the opportunity arising from
the fact that one Of my most intimate
friends-a literary man, who loved So
cluson mt his lHbors--was spending the
Winter at the watering place in question
and being suddenly taken i'll, had tele-
graphed to me. intended to go one day
and return the next. ! found my friend
suffering only from n severe cold, which
morbidness induced by his lonely way oI
life had magniilcd out of MI proportion
to what it was in reality. Having done
the be-t ] could for him. resisted his
invitation TO stay, and hiring convey
ance from one Of the adjacent hotels, set
forth to visit my strange patient Mt Thorn
cliff.


Thornclif was bleak peak, or jutting
rock, surmounted by tumble down
tavern, some ten miles distant from any
other human habitation. The tavern was
called the Thorncliff Arms, and had been
built many years ago in the hopes that il
would become n favorite resort for excur-
sion parties. That hope had fallen thro'
been disappointed.


The proprietor, who had almost ruined
himself by his enterprise, had now been
dead for some years, and as subsequently
learned, had left his widow and daughter
An only child-a sum Of money just
sufficient for their support. That mother
and child were the only occupants Of the
ruined homestead and the child, Lucy
Lot, was the strange patient in whom
some watering place gossip had interested
me.


The overpowering gloom of that day !
shall never forget. The iron sky, the
roar of the sea, the ice-crusted layer Of
snow that was crunched beneath my car
riage wheels, the desolateness Of the pros
pect, the fact that no house nor human
being was in sight the noise Of the winds
as they made havoc over the boundless
expanse Of shore and sea, the deadly cold
of the atmosphere, the desolation Of soul
one experiences when he finds himself
amongst surroundings so bare and pitiless
and bleak, all the sensations due 10 such
scenes and circumstances as these swept
over me, so tlrat | was glad when tho We
hcle stopped before the door Of the
Thorncliff Arms, and caught glimpse
through the window Of bright fire within.


The brightly burning fire, which seemed
alive, was the only inhabitant Of the
quaint, old fashioned room in which !
soon found myself. Two windows, made
Of those small panes OF glass our foreRa-
theirs found as serviceable as the plate Of
more modern days, looked out upon the
sea. Situated as the house was, upon the
verge of projecting bluff, the eye sur
veyed through these windows the arc OF
an immense circle, made up of sea and
sandy shore.


Riveted to the spot in dismal trance,
in which an oppression at my chest was
the prevailing sensation, l must have
stood still for some ten minutes, not no
ticing The warmth of the CRATE just behind
me, but feeling myself an atom cast up,
like a wreck, by the elements that warred
without. From this trance was aroused
by light touch laid upon my arm, and
a soft, clear voice, which said, There