The Argosy — page 400: what you’re looking at

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

386 An Unsolved Mystery. Venetian stiletto, whilst beside him stood the old woman, who laughed a fearful laugh, as she spurned the body with her foot ! As she laughed, the vision faded, and Val Wycherley left the drawing- room, uneasy for his brain. At the door he was met by Mrs. Comyers who insisted upon his coming down to see her pretty dinner-table. Colonel Comyers was also one of the privileged, and the proud young housekeeper unlocked the dining-room door, when lo!—all the ex- quisite old china and glass lay in fragments upon the floor! The table- cloth was pulled away, and all the pretty decorations ruthlessly destroyed! Ina recess near the fireplace stood a dark, foreign-looking man and the old woman, both of whom laughed devilishly, and then vanished! The scene was witnessed by the three. Mrs. Comyers fainted in her husband’s arms. A serious nervous illness followed, and as soon as it was practicable she was removed from the house. Val Wycherley recounted his experiences in the drawing-room, and Colonel Comyers admitted that he had witnessed the same scene. Of course they left the house, but refrained from making the reason public, beyond telling the proprietors ; who, naturally, did not credit it. But tenant after tenant left, scared away by strange noises and appearances, and the house fell gradually into its present state of decay : not even a care-taker could be induced to remain in it, The main facts of the preceding story are perfectly. true, and were related to the writer by Mrs. Nugent's daughter, the present proprietress of the ill fated house. © | E. OWENS BLACKBURNE, CONNEC OOO a) SS (CO)