The Arm Chair Library No. 79: The Haunted Homestead — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

ty Ge ~~ om De ¢ Z cr » fap, i - 4 ’ 4 J) aw eae al - + . a - ful was I to have Miss 158 THE MOORHOUSE TRAGEDY. Pas ll ga ae A IM aud suid she wanted to go. herself to Richr-~~* | ~»*... 'y pet.was a little child till after tha' to buy some trinkets, and bid me ask ner father to let her go with me, and the tutor to take care of us. I went and did my message, all but mentioning theescort my young mis- tress had chosen,for I hoped "he colonel would say he was going himself; but instead, he said directly ,— ‘¢ ‘Jo with her, Esther, by all means. . It will be an era in her life to buy a doll for her- self, instead of having itsent to order. And Mr. Gray shall go too. He will not only pro- tect you on the journey, butis very competent t help Adelais in her errand.’ Dg. - The next day wesetout. Itis about a hun- dred miles, and we were in no hurry, so it was nearly a week before we reached the city. We were only to stay one night, and all the first day Miss Adelais was around in theshops with me, whiJe Mr,Gray went upon his own business. ** T was very tired at night, andI su slep unusually sound, for when 1 awoke in the morning ( lhada bedin Miss Adelais’ cham- ber ) she was gone. “ T gotup, feeling terribly frightened and bewildered, dressed gone to look for her could [have guessed which way togo. But whilelI wasstill running up and down the house, and peeping from every window that I came to, [ heard the hall door open, and presently my younz mustress came very softy up the stairs and went into her own room. I followed her in, and looked the ques- tion I did not like to ask. She blushed rosy red, and turned away to the window, ‘***Good morning, Miss Adelais, said I, without looking around, ‘I have been out for & little walk.? ** * Did you go alone, Miss Adelais ?’ asked I oe ** No, that would not be proper ina stran place like this. My tutor went with me.’ 5 “Her voice, soft asit was, had a touch of her father’s tone in it, and I said no more;but, although I never heard the story of my dar-|. “ ling’s walk that morning,I believe, and hope as I hope for salvation, that she went to be mar- ried to Mr. Gray. Not that [thoughtso then. if [ had suspected such a thing, I should have been out of my wits with grief anddismay. [ thought then that it was only like the rides and walks at home that they had been going after, ‘* We started for home that day, and thank- : Adelais under her (moma dag a pty he ep really not so dif- rom w & stranger’s might have been. e “* After this, things went on the same way, except that my n grew and moreaway from me, and when she was not out with her tutor. stay alone in this chamber, that had been Sita lever shui was ten years ola xa | poe ha always beer called the Chamber to| - Ast: and now it sometimes went by that sometimes "Thai eap myself, and wovld have |}' 7 much in | w » she liked best to in and out bere as T aia! jo to Richmond; but after that I often found the door locked, and my mistress would notansvrer if Ispoke. ‘When this had happened two or three times, ~ avoided going except to dress and undress her, and then I always knocked, like any of the other servants. But after a time she would nct let me help her at all about her toilet, or let mein night and mor ing; and my heart. was very sore, for I sa “4 that the child I had nursed at my breast, 1 loved like my own dead baby, had lost her ove and trustin me. She hid away from mie all she could, and blushed if even I looked stead- fastly at,her, ie Dae ‘* So closed the first year of Mr. Gray’s life with us, andI hoped he was, to_ go aw4y, but nothing was said about it, and we ee the second year with November. But, 0», dear child; oh, my poor pet! why would you come here?, Why GA x08 force this story from me to-night, of all nights in the year— this fifteenth of November ?’ She paused, choked with her sobs;,but rh imperious gesture, and hoarse whisper of " . on !goon!” forced her to dry her eyes; 4” e continu : | : “‘Ttwas the night of the fifteenth of movet ber, twenty-two Years 9&0, and I had gone °° my own. bed in the chamber directly over after offering to undress Miss Adelais, Wi would not, hone vey ones the door for -.. - was in bed, but not asleep—for in truth - a erying at the way my child had taken ~ treating me—when I heard my master om . quiekly up the stairs, and pass duwn the ¢ , ridor Sadhu to the C to the East. qauiped out of bed, and ran to the stair th listen. He lifted thelatch, The door *" fastened; but the lock that was strong enoug: to keep out the friend who would have wat) and saved her, gave way at once before * Othe aneny colong and then I neard my id prayer for mercy, ® nihinys assion. arte : Ale dismighs gape tis = and along the struck back with ioht ! There; dust—there lay the poor boy on his face, ©" j d : wv beside bin, a holdiay one of bis hands. in both of hers, We my poor darling, my wae, frightened ba"! addy vate wn over the Bs wf ; ood, s-ecom