Year: 1871

ground cellars were perfect. The attics
had no trap-doors; and the house had
no parapet The chimneys were too


high and narrow for any one to get in
at the top. No window or door was ev-
er found unfastened in the morning.


Mrs. Wharton did not think she could
engage for courage enough to get out of


bed, or to look beyond the curtains.
Nor could she promise not to draw her


curtains. The face had never appear


ed within them and they seemed a sort
/ of protection where there was no other.


Without having made any promises,


she went so far as to start up in bed,
the next time she saw the face. The
eyes winked horribly at her; the head
nodded and was gone. The beating
of her heart prevented her hearing any
thing at that time; but once or twice
during the autumn she fancied she
/ heard light and swift footstep in the


passage. She always left her room


door open, for the sake of the same sort


of feeling of security that most people


crave when they shut and bolt theirs.
| If this was a ghost, bolts would not keep


it out; and she could fly the more easily
! through the open door if her terror
should become too great to be endured


alone For the first time, she now burn
| ed night-ight in her chamber, as the
/ nights heightened, and not dim, flick
eTing rush candle, but steady Wax-ligat.
| She knew that her daughter wondered
at the strange extrayaganee but she


could not bear darkness, or a feeble


light. when the thing might be behind
the curtain.


Throughout October, the visits were
i = rl5rrF4fIrr Tn. he ,.a1r ~
| November they suddenly ceased; and


so many weeks passed away without a


return, that Mrs. Wharton began to be a.


little alarmed about her own wits, and


to ask herself whether, after all, it was


not possible that this was a trick of the


nerves One night in January, that


doubt. al least. was settled; for there. at
the same bedpost. was the same face.
Mrs. Wharton was now, after this inter-


val, subdued at once. She had borne,


for half year, her pastors suspicious


of her digestion and of her wisdom, and


now she really wanted sympathy. She


let him tell her daughter (let him, rather


than tell it herself, because he could


make light of it, and she could mott 4
and she gladly agreed to let her daugh-


ter sleep with her. For long, she gained


nothing by it.


During the whole fortnight that the
visits now continued, Miss Wharton


never once saw the face. She tried to
wake the moment her mother touched
her; she tried to keep az. axe but she
never saw the face and after that fort
night it did not come again till April.


One bright May dawn, she saw it.


Her mother pulled her wrist, and she
walked up to a sight which burned itself
in upon her BRAIN She suppressed a
shrek at the moment but she could not
tell Mr.. Quincy of it afterward, without
tears. She wanted that day to leave the |
house Immediately but the thought of |
her mother s long suffering with this hor-
ror, the consideration of the serious con-
sequences of declaring themselves |
ghost-seers in the town, and of the dis |
astrous effect upon their property, and |
of the harmlessness of the ghost in |
duced her to summon up her courage,
and bear on. She did more When a |
little Injured, she one night sprang out of |
bed, rushed round the foot Of it, and out
upon the landing. The stairs were still I
dim in the dawn but she was confident /
that she saw something moving there
passing down to the hall AS soon as
she could make the servants attend her,
she told them she believed somebody /
was in the house; and all the four wo-
n1en-two ladies ana two ndaids-went,
armed with PokeTs and shoveIs, and
examined the whole house. They found /
nothing, neither in the chimneys, nor
under the beds, nor in any closet
nothing, from cellar to attic And when
the maids had recovered a little, they
agreed what a tiresome and wearYing
thing it was when ladies took fancies.
This was only their first night of dis
turbance. Miss Wharton called them
up three times more and then she gave
the matter up. The servants thought
her strangely altered, and wished she
might not be going to be ILL.,


Thus matters went on for some years.
The oldest thing was the periodicity of
the visits. In winter they were rare
but there was generally a short series
in or about January, after which they
ceased till the end of March, or the be
ginning of April. They went on through
nearly the whole summer with one or
two intervals of about fortnight. The
servants never suspected even the ex-
istence of the mystery. Their ladies
never mentioned it; and no article was
ever displaced at night. The ladies be-
came in time so accustomed to the ap-
pearance as to bear it almost without
uneasiness. 1t occurred to them some
times, how odd it was to be living under
the weight of such a mystery and they
were silent when ghosts were talked
about, and felt and looked very serious
when they were laughed at but their
alarm had subsidized. The Thing never
did them any harm; and they had now
got merely to open drowsy eyes to see
if it was there and to drop asleep the
moment it was there no longer. This
may seem strange to those who have not
land also to those who havel seen
ghosts but we none of US know what
we may come to and these two ladies
reached the point of turning their heads
on their pillows, without much beating
of the heart, under the gibbering of a
hideous ghost.


One circumstance worth noting is,
that the Thing once spoke. After one
of its mocking mods, it said, 81 come to
see you whenever 1 please" When Mr.
Gurney was told this, he asked whether
the language was English, and what
sort of English it was. 1t must have
been English, as the ladies did not OBJ
serve anything remarkable. As to the
dialect, it had made no particular i'm
preston upon them, but when they came
to remember and consider, they thought
it must have been the broad dialect of
the district, which they were accustomed
to hear in the kitchen, and in the streets
and shops, every day. This was all.
Amid the multitude of nightly vista
tions, no exPlanation-no new evidence
occurred for several years. Mr.. Cur
ney was not fond of being puzzled. His
plan was to dismiss from his mind what
puzzled him. He seldom inquired after
L I. l. !


received the same answer.


One morning, after this lapse of years,
Mr.. Gurney called to ask the ladies if
they would like to join a party to see a
glasshouse The residents of manufac-
turing towns cannot intrude in such
places at their own pleasure, but las is
well lznown) take their opportunity when
an arrival of strangers, or other such
occasion, opens the doors of any man
ufactory. Mr.. Quincy was the first man
in the town, in regard to doing the hon