Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 32, Number 230, 22 September 1907 — Page 7

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ANTED A young English lady, as companion to a lady in Hungary; must be young and a good walker; eood looks absolutely es sential. Salary, 100 pounds a year." I read the advertisement as far as this, three times over, then I jumped up from my chair, and stood before the looking-glass. "Good looks absolutely essential," I said .aloud. "We-eU I should think" I did not finish my sentence. Even to myself, in the solitude of my own poky bed-sitting-room, it sounded too rain. AH the same I laughed under mr breath and kissed my hand to my own reflection, saying in a. whisper: "Never mind, Miss Vanity, you'll do. After all," I added, "it's no use pretending not to know I am passably good looking." and nt this I laughed aloud, for you see the glass showed me a pair of shintng eyes, sweeping lashes, and dark hair that came tumbling over my forehead in little willful curls. There you have a fair picture of Molly Tremayne, sometime nursery governess, next, companion and no rich friends, and with money running shorter and shorter every day. Of course I knew the folly of accepting a foreign post of which I knew nothing but I had no training and I did not want to starve. Therefore I determined to apply for this situation at the address given that of a hotel off the Strand. I was received by an old gentleman of so benevolent an appearance and such charming manners that the doubts I had had of my wisdom vanished, more especially when he seemed to think me eminently suitable. He informed me that the lady who needed a companion was a Countess Pravsnoskl, who, with her son, lived in a remote corner of Hungary. He told me of the duties required of me, and well, to make a long story short, I accepted the post. The old gentleman who said he was t-teward of the Countess estate gave me a substantial sum for my journey, with ail i instructions as to the route, and, assuring me that I should do admirably for all that the Countess wanted of me, he bade me farewell. We were driving up up up for ever up a long, winding road; and, tired though I was after my journey half across Europe, I leant forward to view the landscape from the carriage window. After a drive of nearly ten hours we lumbered round a bend in the desolate road, and I saw a massive building Just ahead of us. At first rocks and buildings seemed to be mixed up Inextricably, then I disentangled chimneys, turrets and windows and saw that we were rapidly approaching a huge medieval castle. We drove up to a great gateway, upon which my coachman knocked with his whip in nrlmitlve fashion. A wickett slid back and a repulsive man's face peered out. This man next began to unfasten the gate with a clanging of bolts and chains that reminded me of a prison. The huge gate slowly creaked and swung open; we drove through into a paved courtyard, and the gate swung to bemind us with a clang that sent my heart into my boots. I felt myself shaking as I got out of the carriage and stiffly climbed the steps into the great hall where I was met by a servant who had appeared as we drove up. He ushered me at once into a comfortable room with a big fire, from which a tall woman advanced to greet me. She was singularly handsome, in spite of her nity and odd years, and her dark, piercing eyes seemed to look me through and through. A man stood behind her, leaning against the mantlepiece. As his eyes fell on me I taw that lie stared violently, and an

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expression I could not interpret owept over his face. Was it pity? Dismay? Fear? What was it? The Countess Pravsnoskl greeted me charmingly, and though all the time I felt that her deep eyes were searching my very soul, nothing could have been kinder than her manner or more considerate than her suggestion that I should go at once to my room and have supper there. "Tomorrow we will discuss duties and arrangements," she said, in fluent English; "tonight rest. I will show you to your room, Miss Tremayne." So saying she swept across to a door near the fireplace and I followed her. Just as I was passing the fireplace, the gentleman, who had all this time been standing there in silence, stooped a little toward me and said in a low, intense whisper, and in English: "For Heaven's sake get out of this place." I half paused, gazing at him in amazement, but he was already back in his original position, looking indifferently across the room, and apparently unaware of my existence. Could I have been mistaken? Had he not spoken? I cast another hurried glance in his direction, then hastened after the Countess. The chill of doubt descended on me again, with a sick remembrance that I could not take advantage of his warning if it had been a warning for I had not the wherewithal to travel back across Europe again, even if I wished to do so. My doubts were dispelled, however, when I saw the two beautiful little rooms prepared for me, and when the Countess said graciously: "I hope you will be very happy here, my dear; we shall do our best to make you so." Then leaving me in the care of a kindly-looking maid, she departed. Katlnka the maid, did her best for my comfort; she brought me my supper, helped me unpack, and chatted to me gaily in the queerest possible mixture of German and English. Once or twice in the course of conversation she mentioned the Count and remembering the impassive gentleman downstairs and his strange whisper, I said at last: "No doubt it was the Count I saw with the Countess when I arrived." Katlnkc stared at me, a look of frozen horror on her face. "Himmel, no," she exclaimed. "It the I beg the gracious Fraulein's pardon, but that gentleman is the secretary the German secretary." "Then the Count " I began, but broke off, startled by the white terror on the maid's speaking countenance. "The Count lives always in his own wing of the castle," she said curtly, and not another word did she utter during the rest of the time she spent in my room. "The Count is evidently unpopular," I mused. When left to myself, I began to prepare for bed, having first locked the door into the corridor, and looked very carefully in every cranny and corner of the room. I paused finally at the window, and drawing back the blind, looked out. The castle was evidently built on the very edge of a rock, for, standing inside my room I could with the greatest ease have flung a stone into those black depths below. I shrank back from the window, trembling all over, the words the secretary had whispered echoing in my ears: "For Heaven's sake get out of this place." I slept soundly; the morning sunlight dispelled my fears, and the normal aspect of the breakfast at which I met the secretary and the Countess, made me laugh at my terrors of the night. My duties, as explained by the Countess, seemed light indeed, and my spirits rose rapidly. Once in the course of the meal my eyes met these of the secretary. Herr Schmidt, and something in their earnest scrutiny brought back to me his strange words of the previous night. But he looked away again at once, and his apparent indifference to my presence convinced me I 2iad been mistaken. In the one or

THE KICIIMOXD PAIXADIUM AND SUX-TE XiEGEAM,

two glances I stole at him I could not determine whether I liked or disliked his face. That day passed uneventfully, and I went to bed with all my doubts entirely set at rest. I fell asleep quickly, and do not know how long I had slept when-1 was,' suddenly roused into full wakefulness by the sound of voices outside my door. "I think she will certainly do." The voice was that of the Countess, a ring of exultation in it. "Don't you think she will do?" "I am not sure," there was hesitation in this voice. Herr Schmidt's, "we may find that she may not agree to" Their voices and footsteps died away, but I remained, staring wildly at the door. Was it I who would "certainly do?" What should I do for? What did it mean? I had been at the castle a week. Each day had its small round of duties, but nothing again happened to rouse my fears. The Countess was charming, the secretary civil but distant, though I had an instinctive feeling that he watched me more than I knew. The Count I had never met or seen. The wing in which he lived was separated from the rest of the castle by a covered way and he never seemed to join his mother. I was growing to feel quite happy and at home in my new surroundings, in spite of their loneliness and isolation, and to delight in my rooms, even in spite of the awful abyss over which they hung, when something occurred which roused afresh all my uneasiness. On a heavenly evening, just before sunset, I was sitting in the garden, book in hand, when the sound of a window violently flung open over my head made me glance upwards, to see a man's face peering at me. It was a singularly handsome one, with dark, piercing eyes that fastened themselves eagerly upon my face. I saw an expression of relief flash over the speaking countenance, then came a look of positive pleasure, and next I heard a voice say: "Yes she will do she will certainly do," and at the same moment the face was hurriedly withdrawn and the window was slammed down again with a resounding bang. The strange similarity of the words to those used by the Countess outside my room a week before at once struck me, and I sprang to my feet, looking nervously round me in the gathering shadows, fearing something, yet not knowing what I feared. There was a step on the gravel close beside me, and Herr Schmidt's voice whispered: "Why did you not take my advice? It is too late now." His voice was broken with emotion, so unlike his usually Indifferent accent that I turned quickly to answer him, but he had vanished amongst the shrubs, and I saw the Countess Issuing from the garden door. "My dear." she said in her smoothest tones. "I want you to come and be introduced to my son. He i3 most anxious to meet you. He is not very strong and therefore keeps chiefly to his own apartments." Feeling a little dazed. I meekly followed her across the great hall and down the covered way to the Count'3 wing, where she opened a door and led me Into a luxuriously-furnished apartment looking into another garden. Only one Incongruous feature stuck me. The windows were bared with iron, exactly as though the room was a prison! On our entrance a young man rose from a big armchair and held out his hand in cordial greeting, and when I saw him I nearly screamed aloud. The handsome face and dark eyes were the very same that only a few minutes before had peered down at me from a window in another part of th castle! What did it all mean? The Countess and I stayed some time with the Count, who, in spite of his handsome face, repelled rather than fascinated me. In his eyes was a look that haunted me Ions after I bad left

him; a look whether of fear or some hidden aguish I could not determine, enly I know that I instinctively shrank when he warmly shook my hand. Imagine my unutterable amazement when, on my going to my boudoir after dinner that evening, the Countess said to me, in a trembling voice: "My dear Miss Tremayne, the strangest thing has happened. My boy, my dear and only son, who till now has never looked twice at any woman has fallen passionately in love with you." "With me?" I cried; "why, he has only seen me for five minutes!" "I know, I know," she answered; "but he has one of those natures which are on fire In a moment. Miss Tremayne," her voice grew extraordinarily grave and earnest "I beseech you to consider whether you conld not make my dear boy happy by becoming his wife." "I gasped, and with difficulty replied: "But I I am only a companion; how could such a thing be possible? . And I do not love him. In England" "I know." she interrupted, "I understand that It is not your custom to woo in such haste, but" her voice shook with excitement, "I long for my son's happiness. I was too stupefied to think clearly. I only realized that, for some reason impossible to understand, she actually wished that I. pennilef.:. dependent, should marry her son! "But." I stammered, "the Count in his position could marry anyone the highest born lady, the" "Yes, of course he could," she answered, and I suddenly saw an odd furtive look in her eyes; "but I want his happiness" and she seized and wrung my hand. "It is you who can give him that." She then proceeded to tell me of all the advantages I should reap by becoming her daughter-in-law. She mentioned settlements which positively made my hair stand on end. She talked of jewels that set my heart beating. She spread an alluring prospect before my eyes. and I was a poor girl, remember! The prospect was sufficiently dazzling. Yet I remembered the odd shrinking with which the Count had inspired me! I knew that I did not even like much less love him, and I refused the wonderful offer. As I said the words an extraordinary gleam came into her eyes; she leant over me, and again wrung my hands in a grasp that was actual torture, aud in a whisper closely resembling a hiss she murmured: "Ah, but you shall marry him!" "I shall not marry him." I answered firmly, and then she laughed softly, a laugh that made m.v blood run cold. I was a prisoner at the castle! I knew It I felt it. though no one had told me so. For where in the first week I was free to wander on the mountain side as I would. I was now never allowed to stir outside the garden. My way further afield was always barred by the sullen porter or one of the other men. and I felt that a dull persistent pressure was being applied to me make me agree to mary the Count. An unaccountable but intense dislike to conside even the possibility of such a thing grew upon me. Every day I felt more and more like a caged animal. Another fact was borne upon me. I was not allowed to be for a second alone with the secretary. Whether the countess had become aware of the warning he had given me, or what, I cannot say. All I know is that he and I were never able to exchange a single syllable of conversation, although I instinctively felt that he wished to communicate with me. I was watched watched in every direction and why this should be so I could not imagine. Each morning I was forced to listen to pleadings, beseechings, almost threats from the countessj each, after

SUNDAY, SEITEMBEIl 22,

noon I had to spend half an hour, never more, never less, in the count's sitting room, his mother sitting with us. Every evening after my refusal to do as the countess wished, she practically sent me to Coventry and treated me with cold displeasure. The climax came at last. When I went to bed one evening I found the following note pinned tc my pillow: "This comes as a warning. If my wishes are not carried out, beware! "Adeline Countess Pravsnoskl." I do not know why these words gave me such a sick recoil of horror, but I found myself trembling from head to foot, and I trembled still as I lay in bed. I suppose I fe'.l asleep into a fitful, restless slumber, but in the middle of the night something roused me into sudden and acute wakefulness. I sat upright In bed, shivering from head to foot, listening Intently, agonizedly for what? No sound broke the deadly stillness, I could almost hear my heart beating in quick, heavy beat3, when, with appalling suddenness, the silence was broken. An awful shriek rose on the air, and I. sprang from my bed in terror that amounted to frenzy, and rushed to the door. A flint light gleamed in the passage and as I stood in it I heard the shriek repeated, followed by groans and cries of a sort that baffle description. Hurriedly flinging on a cloak, and driven to do so by sheer fright. I flew In the direction of the tumult, toward the count's apartments. The door leading to them was ajar. I pushed it open and tore headlong in, Intent only on locating those awful, agonizing screams. The door of his study wa3 also ajar, and from within the terrifying sounds proceeded. Nearly wild with fear, I peeped in to see a spectacle that froze the blood In my veins. The awful sounds I had heard emanated from ths count's Hps, and he was mad, raving mad that could be seen at a glance. In ever-growing horror, I shrank back against the wall, when a heavyhand fell on my shoulder, and the countess' eyes glared into mine. "Go!" she hissed, "and beware. For those who see too much there are dungeons.' Sick, and almost blind with terror, I staggered away, a vision of the awful dungeons I had been taken to visit beneath the" castle recurring to my mind. As I went J stumbled, and a hand helped me up. Through the midst before my eyes I saw the secretary's face; before the countess could" reach my side again I heard his voice in my ear. "Be at your window at dawn," then he hurried away and I fled up to my room. A second later I heard the key turn in the lock, whilst a low malicious laugh sounded outside. Behind me that locked door and a revengeful woman, before me a window that opened upon a precipice. Truly I was between tins devil and the deep sea. I cowered down ?n the darkness, waiting, with beating heart for the first streaks of dawn. Then I dressed and went to the window. Far below in the valley the mist still rolled like grey masses of wool, but the mountain tops showed cold and clear against the gradually lightening sky. I opened my window and peeped out, and as the light grew ctronger I saw a sight which made me hold my breath with a new fear. Creeping, creeping, creeping along the tiny parapet below me which overhung the sheer grey rock came the secretary, , something slung over his arm, his 'hands gripping at whatever hold was afforded by the stones. When he was immediately underneath my window he lifted his eyes to me. "Take this," he said and raised his arm. Then I saw that, slung on bis arm, he carried a rope ladder with grappling irons. 'Fasten the irons to your sill," he went on, "and climb down." "I can't," I cried. "Climb where V

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"The length of the ladder," he answered, "do as I tell you all wl.l be well." Something compelling in his glance made me do as he bade me. I seized the ladder, fixed the irons, and swung myself out on the frail swaying thing, and let myself go! "Go down the cliff side to the end of the ladder," my rescuer said; "there you will find a track-shelf in the cliff. Wait for me there," and saying this, he slowly made his way back along the narrow parapet, whilst I, clinging desperately to the swaying rope, descended the face of the cliff. It was like an awful nightmare! Each moment I expected to be precipitated Into the gulf below, where the grey mist drifted and tossed like lost spirits. But at last at last after what seemed like centuries, my feet touched terra firma. I found myself on a ledge upon which a goat could barely have foothold, and, still clinging frantically to the rope, I leant back against the rock and waited. Again centuries seemed to go by, then a voice came to me through the darkness and faintness that were clouding my soul. I opened my ryes -to see the secretary's face, and his hands outheld. "Come," he said, and I suffered him to lead me along that path of peril down Into a valley hundreds of feet below. When we were out of danger he told me from what a far greater peril I had escaped. It appeared that the Count was subject to periodical attacks of madness, and this was well known to his fellow-countrymen and women. For family reasons his marriage was Imperative, and the Countess conceived the truly diabolical plan of entrapping an ignorant girl from a distant country into marrying her son during one of his periods of sanity. A girl from England had been selected, because, coming from so far away she would be unlikely to know anything of the Count and his peculiarities. The steward had approved of the scheme and had chosen me. "I tried to warn you," he said, "but in vain, and I knew that if the Countess suspected me of influencing you unduly, worse might befall you. I could not bear to think of the ghastly injury to an innocent and Ignorant girl, and I thought out plan after plan, until at last in one of my walks I discovered this boat track." Kind man. Finding how little money I possessed he helped me back to

Use Artificial Gas, Avoid Accidents, and Be Happy. Gas Ranges from 037 up.

Call and see the Ranges at the olllcc cl ' the J

Richmond JUjSti9Meate and PdWGT Oo. No. 618 Main Street.

civilization and England, and so ended the story of my strange experience, which I tell hero as a warning to all young people against attractive-sounding foreign posts of which they know nothing! AN EXECUTION IN INDIA."

The War n Man Ottlltr of Mar4r Vn dervrmt Itoraplf atton. A letter fi-om India to a German piper gives ibis account of the execution near Bombay of a man who bad been found guilty of the murder of hie brotbor-ln-law: "The question aa to whether the culprit should be executed or sent to prlfon for life was, as Is the custom, submitted to the family of the murdfifd man for decision. All, Including the wife of the murdered, Toted for death. Whoa tbe'place of execution was reached the condemned man knelt, and the ropes wbJchwere fastened to hlu were handed over to the executloiicrs Assistants. The one who held the neck rope took a few steps before the kneeling man and the other two stood nt either aide. Then the executioner, nraied with a raor edged, heavy knife, advanced and asked In a loud voice, 'Who authorise the execution V and the chief of police answered, "The law. The question was ashtd aud answered three timet, while the armed man advanced, skrolj swinging the mighty blade. Al the last answer was heard an assistant executioner thrust a m-edle point Into the kneeling man's back and he made na Involuntary motion forward with bis head. The three rope were pulled taut, leaving the neck extended to tho utmost. At the same Instant the knife whirred through the air and the head of the murderer rolled In the sand." Indigo is one of the few product of synthetic chemistry which are cheaper than the natural supply. In consequence, a once flourishing Industry In the east has been neany extinguished. But now It Is reported from India that the older process has been so simplified that it can once more compete with the new one, and the cultivation of Indigo may again become profitable. Prof. Koppay, the Austrian painter, has Just passed through Paris on hl3 way to Vienna from New York, where he did several portraints, among them that of John D. Rockefeler. Professor Koppay, it is understood, re celved $..V " for portraits painted In America which Is not a bad return for six months' work. There was a girl crr-r-jy Isabelle Who pat coal oil ta Csd stove She couldn't bear CizJ a i a aa it Kiiccen sg&j; They found her la Cj. grove. ooo