Terre Haute Weekly Gazette, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 3 April 1884 — Page 10

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The House on the Harsh!

•By F. WARDEN.

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CHAPTER

You are getting pale again, my dear child," said Mr. Rayner to me the very next morning—he met me, at the foot of the stairs, dressed for my walk with Haidee. "We must find some means of bringing those most becoming roses back to your cheeks again. You worked too hard at those self-imposed evening tasks, I am afraid.''

Oh, no, indeed I don't Mr. Rayner! I am getting very lazy I haven't done anything for two or three nights."

The fact was that I had felt too languid even to sit down and write, and had wasted the last two evenings listlessly turning over the pages of a book I did not read. "Ah, then you want change of air! Now how to give it you without letting you go away—for we can't spare you even for a week! You will think me a magician if I procure you a change of air without leaving this house, won't you, Miss Christie? Yet I think I can manage it. You must give me a few days to look about for my wand, and then hey, presto, the thing will be ii nel"

I laughed at these promises, looking upon them as the lightest of jests but the very next dav I meta workman upon the staircase, and Mr. Rayner asked in? mysteri ously at dinner whether I had seen his familiar spirit about, adding that the spirit wore a paper cap and a dirty artisan's suit, and smelt of beer. That spirit pervaded the house for two days. I met him in'the garden holding very unspiritual converse with Jane I met him in my room taking the measure of my bedstead I met him in the passage carrying what looked like thin sheets of tin and rolls of wall-paper, and I heard sounds of heavy boots in the turret above my room. Then I saw no more of him but still there were unaccustomed sounds over my head, sounds of footsteps and knocking, and I met sometimes Jane and sometimes Sarah coming out of a door which I had never known unlocked before, but which I now discovered led to a narrow staircase that I guessed was the way to the turret.

On the fourth day, when I went to my room to d-ess for tea, I found it all dismantled, the bed and most of the furniture gone, and litttle Jane pulling down my books from their shelf and enjoying my discomfiture with delighted giggles, not at all disconcerted at being caught taking an unheard-of liberty. "What does this mean, Jane? I can't sleep on the floor and what are you doing with my books?" I cried in one breath.

I don't knqw nothing about it, miss it's Mr. Rayner's orders," said she, with another irrepressible snigger at my bewildered face.

I was turning to the door to wander forth, I did not know exactly whither, to try to find an explanation of this most extraordinary state of things, when Sarah came in, her dark frowning face offering a strong contrast to that of the laughing Jane. "Sarah, can you tell me what, this means?" said I.

Mr. Rayner has ordered the room in the turret to be prepared for you," said she shortly. Perhaps you will be kind enough to manage down here till after tea, as it's his orders that you shouldn't be shown up till the room is quite ready."

I answered that I could manage very well, and they left the room. I said nothing at tea about my adventure, reflecting that perhaps some surprise for me was intended, which would be sprung upon me at a fitting time. And so it proved. Whilfe I was quietly writing in the schoolroom, after tea, Mr. and Mrs. Rayner and Haidee, who had not yet gone to bed, came in and conducted me in a formal procession up stairs, up the narrow winding turret-staircase that I had so often wanted to explore, and, opening the door of the one room the turret contained, Mr. Rayner, in a short but elaborate speech, begged to install me without further ceremony as the "imprisoned princess of the enchanted tower."

I gave a cry of delight. It was an octagonal room, the four sides which overlooked the marsh containing each a window, while in one of the other sides was a small fireplace with a bright burning fire. The carpet was new, the wall-paper was new there were two easy chairs, one on each side of the fire, a writing-table and a Japanese screen, besides the furniture of my own room. It looked so bright and 60 pretty that my eyes danced with pleasure at the sight, and I could not speak while Mr. Rayner explained that now I should be high and dry out of the damp, and expected me to become red-faced and healthylooking immediately—that he had had tinfoil put behind the paper in one of the cupboards which was considered damp, that the picturesque ivy had Tjeen torn down— all but a little bit to hide the unsightly chimney—and that I was to have a fire whenever I liked now, and one every day when it began to grow colder. "Idon't know what to say. I don't know how to thank you," said I, almost pained

by the extent of the kindness showered upon me. I tried to include Mrs. Rayner in my thanks but she hung back almost ungraciously, and seemed to have been drawn into this demonstration against her will. She was the last of my three visitors to leave the room, and in the moment that we were alone together, before she followed her husband and child down stairs, she said, seeming to be moved out of her reserve by the unaccustomed little excitement, and casting upon me a keen look from her great eyes—

Are you not afraid of sleeping so far from every one! Or do you prefer it?" I am not at all nervous but I was enough impressed by her almost eager manner to answer rather shyly—

No, I don't prefer it. But there is nothing to be afraid of, is there?"

She glanced toward the door, and, saying hurriedly, Oh, no, of course notl I hope you will be comfortable, TVfjga Christie," she left the room.

Afraid! No, of course I was not afraid I never had minded sleeping away from everybody else and, if burglars were to break into the Alders, they certainly would not expect to find anything worth stealing in the turret. I wished Mrs. Rayner had not put the idea into my head, though. I was not so strong-minded as to be Moof against fear even at second hand, ande^er since the sensation caused by that great jewel robbery in Derbyshire I had been vety careful to hide away my watch, my one bracelet, and my two brooches under my pillow at night. But I was too happy in-my new abode to trouble myself ions: with idle fears. I found that, bv.ooan-

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ing out my screen a particular position, 1 could completely hide the bed and washstand, and make myself a real sitting-room tben I sat down by the fire in one of the arm-chairs and gave myself up to the enjoyment of this new piece of good fortune •ind I was still gazing into the fire with my t'eet cozily warming—the nights were already cold ehough for that to be a luxury—on a hassock close to the fender, when I heard Sarah coming up the stairs. 1 knew her footstep, and 1 would rather not have heard what I considered her illomened tread on this first evening in my new quarters. For I knew that Sarah disliked me, and even the fact that she had brought me up some coals to replenish my fire, which was getting low, did not reconcile me to her presence I could not help thinking of the cold grudging manner in which before tea she had announced to me my change of residence. I tried to be friendly, however, and, when I had thanked her for her trouble, 1 said— "I wonder this nice room has been neglected so long. Has no one ever used it, Sarah?"

Mr. Rayner used to use it for a study," said she shortly. "I don't know why lie gave it up I suppose it was too high up. That was six months ago, before you came."

It's a long way from anybody else's room, Sarah, isn't it?" "Mine is the nearest, and I have ears like needles so you needn't be frightened," said she, in a tone which really sounded more menacing than consoling. "It will be rather lonely on a stormy night the wind will howl so up here," I said, my spirits beginning to sink under her Bharp speeches. "Oh, you won't want for company, I dare say!" she said, with a harsh grating laugh.

Why, all the company I am likely to get up here is burglars," I answered lugubriously, with my chin between niy hands.

The start she gave startled me in my turn. "BurglarsI What burglars? What are you talking about?"

I looked up amazed at the effect of my words on Sarah, whom, of all people in the world, I should have considered strongminded. It was promotion for me to be soothing Sarah. "Why, I have more courage than you I" I said, laughing lightly. "I'm not afraid of them. If they came, they would soon go down again when they found there was nothing to take. Would you be afraid to sleep up here alone, Sarah

But she hardly took the trouble to answer me except by a nod her black eyes were fixed upon me as I spoke, as if she would, and almost as if she could, penetrate to my inmost soul. Then, as if satisfied with the result of her scrutiny, she relapsed into her usual hard, cold manner, and, answering my good night shortly, left me alone.

Then I made up my mind definitely on a point that had often occupied me vaguely, and decided that Mrs. Rayner and Sarah were, in different ways, without exception, the two most unpleasant and disagreeable women I had ever met. And alter that I went to bed and dreamt, not of a burglar, but of quite a different person.

The next day was Sunday, and there were two strangers in church who attracted the attention of all the congregation. They were two fair-complexioned, light-haired girls, who sat in the Reades' pew, and who had evidently spared no expense on rather tasteless and unbecoming toilettes. I caught myself feeling not sorry that they were ill-dressed, and glad that one was plain and that the one who was pretty was dreadfully freckled and I wondered how it was that I had grown so ill-natured. Mr. Laurence Reade sat between them, and he shared his hymn-book with the pretty one and I did so wish it had been the plain one! And when we came out of church, and he and his sisters and the two girls trooped out together, the breaking up of the group left him to pair off again with the pretty one.

I remember noticing, as Haidee and I walked home together, that the midges teased me more than they had ever done that summer, that the sun was more scorch ing, and that it was just as dusty as if we had not had any rain at all. It was a horrid day.

Mr. Rayner asked us at dinner if we had noticed the two girls with the pretty hair in Mr. Reade's pew, and said that be had heard that the one with the blue eyes was the future Mrs. Laurence Reade, and that it would be an excellent match for both of them.

I noticed that he paid her a great deal of attention in the church, and afterword they paired off together quite naturally," said he.

And that afternoon the heat and the midges and the dust were worse than ever. Mr. Rayner complained on the day after this that I was looking paler than before, and threatened to have me sent back to my old room if I did not look brighter hi two days from that date. Lnckily for me, within those two days my spirits improved a little. The next day Haidee and I passed by Geldham Park in our walk, and saw over the fence Mr. Reade, his sisters, and the two strangers playing lawn-tennis. None of them noticed us that time but, as we were returning, I observed that Mr. Reade jumped up from the grass where he was loungiug in the midst of the adoring girls, as I thought contemptuously, and shook out of his hat the leaves and grasses with which his oompanions had filled it as for 'them, they were too much occupied with him to see anything outside the park.

Haidee and I bad to tro to the vUlasre shop with a list of articles which I felt sure we should not get there. But it was ona of Mr. Rayner's principles to encourage local trade, so we had to go once a week and tease the crusty and ungrateful old man who was the sole representative of it by demands for such outlandish things as wax-candles, bloater-paste, and I had been tapping vainly for some minutes on the little counter on which lay four tallow dips," a box of rusty crochet-hooks, and a most uninviting piece of bacon, when Mr. Reade dashed into the shop and greeted me with much surprise. When he had asked after Mr. and Mrs. Rayner, and heard that they were quite well, there was a pause, and he seemed to look to me to continue the conversation but I could think of nothing to say. So he roamed about, digging his cane into the cheese and knocking down a jar of snuff, which he carefully scraped together with his foot and shoveled back, dust and all, into the jar, while I still tapped and still nobody came.

He must be at dinner," said I resignedly. In that case we shall have to wait." For I knew Mr. Bowles. So Mr. Reade seated himself on the counter and harpooned the bacon with one of the rusty crochet-hooks.

Convenient places these village shops, are," said he, not thinking of what he was saying, I was sure.

Vm. xt von doal vaa ms

THE TERRE HAUTE WEEKLY GAZETTE.

nor how stale it is,"'said I sharply. He laughed but I did not intend to be funny at alL "I came in only for some"—here he looked round the shop, and his eyes rested on a pile of dusty toys—" for some marbles. I thought they would do for the schooltreat, you know."

I thought it was a pity he did not return to his lawn-tennis and his fiancee, if that was the errand he came on, and I was determined not to be drawn into another tete-a-tete with him, so I turned to leave the shop. But he stopped me.

Old Bowles can't be much longer over his bacon, I am sure," said he rather pleadingly. "I—I wanted to ask you if you were any better. I thought last Sunday you were looking awfully ill."

Last Sunday ?"—and I thought of those girls. "I was never better in my life, thank you. And I am quite well. Mr. and Mrs. Rayner have put me into the turret to keep me out of the damp. It was very, very kind of him to think about it. It is the best room in all the house."

Best room in the house? Then Mr. Rayner doesn't sleep in the house at all," said he, in a low voice, but with much decision.

I got up from the one chair and turned to my pupil, who was deep in an old story-book that she had found. "Come, Haidee.

No, no that is revenge—it is unworthy of you," said he in a lower voice still. Don't let us quarrel again. Mr. Rayner is an angel. No, no, not that!"—for I was turning away again. He has his faults but he is as near perfection as a man can be. Then you are very happy at the Alders now?" "Yes, thank you." "And you have no great troubles?* ov

Yes. I have—Sarah." Sarah? This is one of the servants, isn't it? A gaunt, shrewd-looking person? I've often met her on the road to and trom Beaconsbuigh." "Yes. She goes out when she likes. I think. She is a very important person in the household, much more so than Mrs. Rayner." "Oh! And she is a trouble to you?w "Yes I'm afraid pf her. She doesn't like me. And whenever I used to give her letters to post I never got any answers to them."

Does Mr. Rayner like her?" Like her? I don't think any one could like Sarah, except, of course, her 'young man.' That doesn't count. But Mr. Rayner thinks a great deal of her."

So a young man's liking doesn't oount?" Of course Tom Parkes is prejudiced in her favor," said I, preferring that the talk should remain personal

Surely it is a compliment to a woman that a young man should be prejudiced in her favor?" said he, preferring that the talk should become abstract.

He must have finished by this time!N I cried and a vigorous thump on the counter did at last bring in Mr. Bowles, who declared it was the first sound he had heard.

I was sorry to find that he had several of the things I wanted, as everything he sold was of the worst possible quality and while he was doing them up Mr. Reade found an opportunity to whisper—

You got my flowers?" "Yes, thank you it was very kind of you to send them." "Bring them," corrected he. "What did you do with them?"

I remembered the fair-haired girl and my resolve to be discreet. "I put them in water, and when they were dead I threw them away." "Threw them away?" "Yes, of course one doesnt keep dead flowers," said I calmly but it hurt me to say it, for the words seemed to hurt him It is very hard to be discreet.

He said no more, but took his parcel and left the shop, saluting ine very coldly. I had taken up my parcel, and was going out too, when Haidee's soft voice broke in.

You've got Mr. Reade's marbles, and he has gone off with mamma's wool and the curtain-hooks, Miss Christie!"

I had not noticed this. "How stupid of him!" I exclaimed. He had marched off so fast that I had to run down the lane after him before he heard me call

Mr. Reade!" We laughed

a little at the embarassment he would have felt if he bad produced a ball of wool and curtain-hooks as the result of his morning's shopping, and if I had gravely presented Mrs. Rayner with a bag of marbles. And tben, remorseful and blushing, I said hurriedly— 1 did keep one of the roses, Mr. Reade —the one with the note on it and then I ran back to Haidee, without looking up. Whether he was engaged or net, I could not be ungracious about those lovely flowers.

Then Haidee and I went home to dinner. I had met Mr. Reade quite by accident, and I had done nothing wrong, nothing but what civility demanded, in exchanging & few words with him but I was glad Haidee was not one of those foolish prattling little girls who insist upon chattering at meal-times about all the small events of morning's walk.

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CHAPTER IX.

Mr. Readb's cruel and prejudiced acculations against Mr. Rayner had not in the least shaken my faith in the kindness and goodness of the master of the Alders but felt anxious to prove to myself that the charges he brought against him were groundless. Mr. Reade's suggestion that he let his family sleep in the damp house while he passed his night's elsewhere, for instance, was absurd in the extreme. Where else could he sleep without any one's know anything about it? I often heard his voice and step around the house until luite late he was always one of the first In the dinning-room to our eight o'clock breakfast, and even on the wettest mornings be never looxea as if ne haa oeen oat in the rain.

It often seems to me that, when I have been puzzling myself fruitlessly for a long time over any matter, I find oat quite simply by accident what I want to know. Thus, only the day after my *a11t with Mr. Reade in the shop, I was nursing Haidee, who did not feel inclined to play after les-son-time, when she said—

Do you ever have horrid dreams, Miss Christie, tfeat frighten you, and then come true!" "No, darting dreams are only fancies, you know, and never come true, except just by accident,"

I said this because everybody considers it the right answer to give to a child but I do believe just a little in dreams myself. 'She went on gravely—

But mine do. I'll tell you about one I had two nights ago, if you'll bend your head and let me whisper. I musn't tell mamma, because she always stops me and says I musn't speak of what I see but I can say it to you you wont tell, will you?"

Nn darlincr. wont talL" K&id I. thinb-

ing it kindest to lec the child speak out about her fancies, instead of brooding over them, as the shy little thing was too prone to do.

She put her little hand up to my cheek, and, drawing down my face to hers, breathed into my ear in the very faintest, softest whisper I have ever heard—

You know that day when we took you up to your new room in the turret!" Yes, dear," said

Hush Whisper," cooed she. Well, that night Jane put me to bed, just as she always does, in my little room, and then I went to sleep just like I always do. And then I dreamt that I heard mamma screaming and crying, and papa speaking—oh, so differently from the way he generally does it made me frightened in my dreamt 1 thought it was all real, and I tried to get out of bed but I was too much asleep: and then I didn't dream any more, only when I woke up I remembered it. I didn't tell anybody and the next night I wondered if I should have the dream again, and I didn't wan't Jane to go away and, when I said it was because I'd had a dream, she said dreams were stuff and nonsense, and she wanted to go an4 dream at having supper. And then she went away, and I went to sleep. And then I woke up because mamma was crying, and I thought at first it was my dream again but I knocked my head against the rail of my bed, and then I knew I must be awake. And I got out of bed, and I went quite softly to the door and looked through the keyhole, for there was a light in her room. When she has a light, I can see in quite plainly through the keyhole, and 1 can see the bed and her lying in it. But she wasn't alone like she generally is—I could see papa's hand holding the candle, and he was talking to her in such a low voice but she was crying and talking quite wildly and strangely so that she frightened me. When she talks like that I feel afraid—it doesn't seem as if she were mamma. And then 1 saw papa put something on her face, and mamma said, 'Don't—don't! Not that!' and then she only moaned, and then she was quite still, and I heard him go out of the room. And presently I called, Mamma, mammal' but she didn't answer and I was so frightened, I thought she was dead. But then I heard her sigh like she always does in her sleep, and I got into bed again."

Were you afraid to go in, darling!" I couldn't go in, because the door was locked. It always is, you know. I never go into mamma's room I did only once, and she said—she said"—and the child's soft whisper grew softer still, and she held her tiny lipe closer to my ear—" she said I was never to say anything about it—and I promised so I musn't even to you, Miss Christie, dear. You don't mind, do you, because I promised?" "No,a darling, I don't. Of course you must not tell if you promised," said

But I would have given the world to knew what the child had seen in that mysterious room.

Haidee's strange story had roused again in me all the old feeling of a shadow of some kind hanging over the'house on the marsh which had long since worn away in the quiet routine of my daily life there. The locking of the mother's door against her own child, her wild talk and crying, the "something on the face" that her husband had had to administer to calm her, and the discovery that he himself did not sleep in the same room, all united to call up in my mind the remembrance of that long talk I had had with Mr. Rayner in the schoolroom soon after my arrival, the story he had told me of her boy's death, and the change it had made in her, and his allusion to those outbreaks which sometimes cause me the gravest—the very gravest anxiety."

I had understood then that he feared for his wife's reason, but aever having witnessed any great change in her cold, listless manner myself, and having seen on the whole very little of her except at meals, all fear and almost all remembrance of her possible insanity had faded from my mind, in which she remained a background figure. But now Haidee's story caused me to wonder whether there was not an undercurrent in the affairs of the household of which I knew Httle or nothing. What if Mr. Rayner, bright* cheerful, and good-tempered as he always seemed, were really suffering under the burden of a wife whose sullen silence might at any moment break into wild insanity—if he had to wrestle in secret as, from the child's story, seemed to have been the case quite recently on two successive nights, with moods of wild wailing and weeping which he at first tried to deal with by gentle remonstrance (Haidee said that on the second night, when she was fully awake, his voice was very low and soft), and at last had to subdue by sedatives!

And then a suggestion occurred to me which would at least explain Sarah's important position in the household. Was she perhaps in truth a responsible guardian of Mrs. Rayner, such as, if the latter's reason were really feeble, it would be necessary for her to have in her husband's absence? I already knew that the relations between mistress and servant were not very amicable. Though she treated her with all outward signs of respect, it was not difficult to see that Sarah despised her mistress, while I had sometimes surprised in the wide gray eyes of the other aside glance of dislike and fear which made me wonder how she could tolerate in her household a woman from whom she had so strong an aversion. That Mr. Rayner wa» anxious to keep the scandal of having a mad wife a secret from the world was clear from the fact that not even Mr. Laurence Reade, who seemed to take a particular interest in the affairs of the household at the Alders, had ever shown the least suspicion that this was the case. 8o the secluded life Mrs. Rayner led came to be ascribed to the caprice—if the village gossips did not use a harsher word—of her husband, while that unfortunate man was really not her tyrant, but her victim.

The only other possible explanation of what Haidee had seen was that Mr. Rayner, kind and sweet-tempered to every one as be always was, and outwardly gentle and thoughtful to a touching degree toward his cold wife, was really the most dea/gning of xuoo, aha was putttng"upon dm wire, under the semblance of devoted affection, a partial restraint which was as purposeless as it was easy for her to break through. This idea was absurd.

The other supposition, dreadful as it was, was far more probable. I was too much accustomed by this time to Mrs. Rayner's listless moods and the faint, far-off looks of fear, or anger, or suspicion that I sometimes saw in her eyes, to be alarmed even by the possibility of a change for the worse in her—the thought that she was perhaps scarcely responsible for her words and actions reconciled me somewhat to her cold manner toward myself and to her jealousy of the hold I was sorely getting upon Haidee's affection. But my strongest feeling was not for the half-witted wife, nor for the unfortunate husband, bat for tha child I

nerseiii «se unsuspected witness or ner mother's outbreaks of incoherent words and cries. It was strange that these attacks should occur only at night, I thonght at first but then I remembered that day when I had read Adam Bede aloud to her in •ho Hrawincr-rrtom. tho into which, apparently trithout any cause, she had fallen, which her husband's entrance had as suddenly subdued—at least for the time for how could I tell what had followed when he had led her away into that bedroom of hers, which was beginning 'to have for me the fascination of a haunted chamber?

The immediate result of the child's confidences to me was a great increase of my love for and interest in herself. We became almost inseparable in and out of school-hours. I encouraged her to talk and she soon fell into the habit of telling me, whether I was listening or not, those long rambling stories which have no beginning, no sequence, and no end, which are the solace of children who have* no companions of their own age. When my attention was wandering from these incoherent tales. I sometimes had it abruptly brought back by some flight of her childish fancy, which set me wondering if it had been suggested by some half-forgotten experience. Thus one day, when I was working and she was sitting on a footstool by my side, with two or three twigs bearing oak-apples which represented, as far as I could judge from her severity to some and her tenderness to the others, the personages of her story, my attention was arrested by the words— "And so the Prince said to Princesf Christie"—the heroine of the story, so named in honor of me—"' I've brought you some jewels much finer than yours.' But Princess Christie cried and said, 'I don't want them. Where did you get them! I know where you got them. You are a naughty bad Prince, and 1 wont wear any jewels any more.'"

And I thought of what Mr. Rayner had told me of his wife's health on her return home from a ball, of her baby boy's death and of her saying she would never wear jewels again. But Haidee had been but a baby girl at the time her words must be a mere coincidence. But some of the coincidences of her narrative were less difficult of explanation, for she went on— "And so Prince Caramel said, 'Very well I'll send you some more roses if you wont throw them away, and some marbles. But you musn't cry, you know. I wont have a Ptincess that cries. I shan't look at you in church if you cry. If you don't cry, I'll let you have some jam, too, as well as butter, and you shall have a ride on the butcher's horse up and down the back yard. And then I'll put you in a fairy-boat, and we'll fly away—fly away right over the trees and over the marsh, and past Mr. Boggett's and up into the clouds and live in a swallow's nest, and never do any lessons.'"

And so on, going off in a wild and unexpected way into all sorts of extravagances, while I thought,* with burning cheeks, that my demure little maiden had heard and seen more than I had suspected, and marveled at the tangle of fancy and reality that grew up from it in her innocent mind. And sometimes she would say, "Let us sing, Miss Christie," and I would •ing some ballad, while she would coo an irregular but not inharmonious accompaniment. And we were occupied in this fashion, sitting at the open window ona afternoon, when Mr. Rayner* appeared in the garden. "Go on, go on I havebeeajisteeing to the concert for ever so long. Ini as pretty birds."

Bat of course we eould not go on in tile face of such a eritieal auditor se Mr. Ray* ner, after oomplaining that he had taken a ticket for the series, and was not going to be defrauded like that, told me more seriously that I had a very pretty veioe, and asked why I did not take pity on their dullness and come into the drawing-room after tea sometimes and sing to them.

And you have never tried secular musie with the violin. Miss Christie, I be lieve you're afraid. Sacred musie is slow, and you cant read fast is that it!"

He was trying to pique me bat I only laughed and pointed out to him that he had a visitor on the evening when he was to have tried my skill, but that I was quite ready to stumble through any music he liked whenever he pleased, if it were not too difficult.

I know It is too bad of as to want to trespass upon yeur time after tea, which we promised you should have to yourself. But it would indeed be a charitable action if you would come and let us bore you by our Addling and our dull chat sometimes, instead of slipping up to your turret-cham-ber, to be no more seen for the remainder of the evening. What do you there, if I may ask? Do you take observation of the moon and stars? I should think you must be too close to them up there to get a comprehensive view. Or do you peep into the birds' nests upon the highest branches converse with the ownersF'

I do nothing half so fantastic, Mr. Rayner. I do my tasks and read something improving, and then I sit in Me of my arm-chairs and just think and enjo myself."

Well, we are not going to let yon enjoy yourself up there while we are .moped to death down stairs so to-night you may just come and share our dullness in the drawing-room."

So after tea Mr. Rayner got out his violin, and I sat down to the piano and we played first some German popular songs and then a long succession of the airs, now lively, now pathetic, now dramatic and passionate, out of the old operas have delighted Europe for years, such as The Huguenots, La Traviata, Uxgioletto, and Balfe's graceful Rote of CatUle and The Bohemian Girl. Mr. Rayner played with the fire of an enthusiast, and again I caught the spirit of his playing, and accompanied him, he said, while his face shone with the ecstasy of the musician, as no one had

ever

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panied him before. Doctor Meitland, an old gentleman who, Mr. Rayner privately told me, was now resting from his labors with the proud consciousness that he seldom failed in "killing his man," came in while we were playing.

He was ear nearest neighbor, and he often came in the evening to play chess with Mr. Rayner, who always beat him. H« listened to the music with groat astonish3ient and some pleasure for a long *imrt until he learnt that I was reeding at sight, and that I had Mr. Rayner only once before. Than he almost gasped.

Good gracious! I sheold never have believed it. You seem to have the ««rn« soul!" he cried, awe struck.

And after that his astonisment evidently outweighed tht pleasure he took in our performance. Mr. Rayner gave me a strange smile as the Doctor uttered his quaint speech, and I laughed back, much amused at the effect of our efforts on a musioally

VW at Uii

and Mr. Rayner was patting his violin into its case, he suddenly discovered that a corner of the latter was damp. "This will never do," be exclaimed, with as much affectionate concern as if a friend's well-being had been threatened. "I might as well keep it in the garden aa in this den," he went on, quite Irritably for him—music always wrought to a high pitch of excitement. "Here, Sarah," be aAied, turning toward the table where she had just placed the candles. Take to my room—mind, very carefully."

So his room could not be damp,I thought, or he would not allow his precious violin to be taken there. I had said good night, and was in the hall, just in time to see Sarah, carrying the violin, disappear down the passage, on the right side of the staircase, which led' to the study. Now the wing where Mrs. Rayner's room was was on the left hand side of the staircase. Did Mr. Rayner sleep in the study I could not let my curiosity lead me to follow her, much as I should have liked to solve this little mystery. I knew all the rooms on the upper story, and, except the nursery where Mona and Jane slept, the cook's room, Sarah's, and the one I had left, they all bore distinctly the impress of having been long unused. So I was obliged reluctantly to go up stairs. When 1 got to the foot of my turret staircase, however, which was only a few steps from the head of the backstaircase that the servants used, I heard Sarah's quick tread in the passage below, and, putting down my candle on the ground, I went softly to the top of the stairs—there was a door here also, but it was generally open and fastened back—and looked down. I saw Sarah, much to my amusement, give a vicious shake to the violin- case, as if it were a thing she hated and then I saw her take a key from her pocket and unlock a door near the foot of the stairs. But, as the door went back on its hinges and Sarah took out the key,went through, and locked it behind her, I saw that it led, not into a room at all, but into tho garden.

So far, then, Mr. Reade's guess was right. But there still remained the question—Where did Mr. Rayner sleep?

[To be Gwitinued^

Democratic Township Ticket.

HARRISON T0WW9HIP.

[Election, first Monday in April.J Trustee—Alonzo Foster. Constables—John F. Morrlsson, Henry MoCab?, l'baddeus H. Huston, Charles D. Flaid.

Supervisors—First district, C. C. Belt Second, Charles Stewart. HOXBY CRKBK DKKOCBATS.

Trustee—Charles Rigney. Justices—O. M. Curry and .Tames Price. Constables—Weir McGee and Chris. Schooner.

Road supervisors—Edward Roberts, John Haley, Wm. Rogers and Wm. McCoskey. FAYETTE TOWNSHIP.

Trustee—L. D. Scott. Justices of the Peace—Sandford district, Frank KJbler South district, T, J. Word New Goshen district, Marcus Dyer.

For Constables—C. W. Aoord, Jas. Klntz and Dinges Wiihoit. Road supervisors—First District, W. A. Shores Hecond district, William Hansel Third district, Jas. jd. Pooh an. Fourth District, Ben Kdmgton Fifth district, Thos. Butler Sixth district, Jo. Fulmer.

RILEY TOWNSHIP.

Trustee—Americus W. Gordon.. A:. Justices-EdwiH R. Wythe and Elijah Stapgs.

Cvd a tables—Harvey V. Jones and James M. Welsh.

Road supervisors—First district, Isaac Dunham second district, Win. Baker Jr. Third uistrict, John Reece Fourth district, Jay Jessup.

LOST CBBEK TOWNSHIP.

Trustee—Moody C. Ripley. Justicts—AlexGallion,sr.,and JamesM. Toner.

Constable—Alex Gall on, jr. Road supervibors—First district, James McHenry Second district, Ba. ney Myers Third district, Peter Early Fourth district, Aqnllla Jones Fifth district, Thomas Collins Slxtb district David N. Smalls.

LINTON TOWNSHIP,

Trustee—David Week

Constable—Joseph ^bumaker. Road Supervisors—First distriet, Cbsrles Tryon Second district Nathaniel Whiteman Third district, Wm Frakes Fourth district, Wesley Lee.

SUGAR CREEK TOWNSHIP,

Trustee—David H. All. Justice of the Peace—Samuel Mi' ha Is. Constables— Frank Crockett and John O'Sullivan.

Road supervisors— First district, Owen MoBride Second. Horace B. Hiniou: Ttoird, Theory Clearwater Fourth, Ben Hodges Fifth, David Little Si xrh, .James Kelley.

PRAIRIKTON TOWNSHIP.

Trustee—Artb ar Jones. Constables—T. D. Simmons, W. D. Malone. Road supervisors— Kirst district, J. Wood: Second, Madison Bryant Third, Charles Davis.

LOST CRBBK TOWNsniP.

Trustee—Moody C. Ripley. Justices—Wm. Gallion, James Toner. Constables—William Goat, John Griffv. Road Supervisors—First district, James McHenry Second, Barney Meyers Third, Peter Early Fourth, Aquilia Jones Klftb, Thomas Collins Sixth, l»*vid N. Swalls. •,

OTTBR CREEK TOWNSniP.

Trustee—Samuel Watkins. Justices—JSdward harnes, Prymns Tyler. Constables-r-John Compton, David Kirkendal).

Road snpeevlsora—F.rst district, Wm. Roe econd, Jasper Knudson Third, Major Smock Fourth, Wm. West.

PBA1R1B CREEK TOWNSHIP.

Trustee—AmosS. Holloway. Justice—Abraham V.. Starke. Constables—Chas. felliou and Wm. Musgrove.

Supervisors—First district, T. V. Stout Second, Wm. Lee Third, Arlon Jones Fourth, E. R- Crites, iftb, s. Watson Sixtb, Caleb Kirkman.

PIERSON TOWNSHIP.

Trustee—John F. Ferguson, Justice of ttie Peace—Temple Shaw. Constable*—G. W. Peters and J. W. McCamon.

Supervisors—First district, Josepbus French: Second, Thomas Compton: Tnlfd, Wm.H. Tryon Fourth, Abel C. Pierson Fifth, R. P. frvin Sixth, Wm. Tryon.

PENSIONS.

1 TO ALL

SOLDIERS and SAILORS, who were disabled by wounds, accident or otherwise, the loss of a toe, piles, varicose, veins, chrome diarrhoea, rupture, loss of sight or (partial ly so) loss of hearing, falling back of measles, rheumatism, any disability no matter how slight gives you a pension. New u«i HeaeraUe Discharges Obtained. Widows, cdiidren ano parents of aoldiers dying in the tervice, or afterwards, from disease contracted therein are entitled to pension Rejected aad Abandoned dalsne tSpecltlty* Bounty, Bach Pom tjund Horn Claim4 Collected.

PENSIONS INCREASED

anv time when the dlsabilty warrants it. In some manner the disabilitv has increased or you were rated too low. So Ami* for increase at once.

Governmep Claims «ll Kinds Solicited.

My experience and being sere at headquarters enables me to attend promptly to all claims against tte Government Circulars and advice free Address with tuam

TIERNEY,

BX 486, WASHINGTON, D. Ci