The Arm Chair Library No. 79: The Haunted Homestead — page 37: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

4, 7” oes i A ¥ : s ae . wy th oe , s m gi. 2 a’ 5 gre et pac te a ri Oy DO” Sa eames hn ‘ae SRE as oe ee a 4 a” » » eee ens aS oe ah é We? 5 ok At heed os ony id aay eee * , Of eee eS eee i me ss % ~~ — % . a" 7 a i ; , > ° 3 re S ; Coen aT y ie 63 -™ . ; Bens we ~~ » ee a 4 — ES ve a 73 ve ( a Pe ” 4 ike, ; Ca a Lee x engagement of the Hon. Frank How- thilde Legare was announced. . ey . Ren ea Jv ard of Massachusetts and Miss Ma- But little is left to be told. For the remainder of my stay I rested in un- disturbed peace, suffering no recur- rence of opening doors and midnight visitors. 1 was almost sorry that my ghostly mysteries had found so com- monplace a sglution—a mechanical defect taking the place of the phan- tom key, and an optical illusion ex- plaining my midnight vision !—all was accounted for except the spot of blood apo the floor! Upon the morning of my departure I called Mathilde into the room, and, striking an attitude like that of the woman of my vision, I silently pointed to the hidden spot, and gazed at Mathilde to discover con- sciousness in her countenance. But Mathilde first looked back in innoeent. surprise, and then recollect- ing herself, said: “Oh! you allude to a stain there; yes, it is a pity! The men who were painting red lines on the doors over- turned the paint-pot and made a deep, ugly, crimson stain; and, like the spot of blood on Bluebeard’s key, ‘the more we scrub it the brighter it grows! The next time a carpenter happens to be ak work here, mamma intends to have it planed out.” So much for my last hold upon the supernatural! Let me repeat: ‘The hantom key, a mere mechanical de- fect; the spot of blood, a mere stain of paint; and the midnight spectre, an optical illusion! THE HAUNTED HOMESTEAD. 35 But the reader may ask how I ac- count for the resemblance between the woman of my vision and the por- trait of the ill-fated Madeleine Der Vaughan? I answer, that at this distance of time, I regard it as the ef- fect of imagination only, as was the whole vision. an It was about two months after the conclusion of my Christmas visit that I was summoned to Wolfbrake to act as bridesmaid for Mathilde, for it was immediately after the rising of Con- gress upon the 4th of March that Mr. Howard went up to claim the hand of his betrothed. ‘They were married upon the %th. It was a wedding in the fine old-fashioned country style, with a ball and supper the same even- ing, and dinner parties and dancing parties given successively by the neighbors in honor of the bride al- most every day and night for the next two weeks. They have now been married sev- eral years, and have several children —hboys and girls. Frank Howard now holds a “high official” poition in the Bape Administration. And old Mr. egare is justly proud of his gifted son-in-law. As Mathilde is too much of a Creole to bear the rigor of a New England climate, they divide the year, spending the summer in Massachusetts and the winter in Virginia “with the old folks at home.” And year after year I have visited them there, and slept in the haunted chamber, but never since the locks were mended have I been troubled by an opening door or a midnight ghost’ {THE END.} pa CE (EIAMICE JOOKS ce.