The Mill Mystery

at wel

caution, to ho

dom can

CBE

t of rosy sunlight greeted me. "Ah!" thought I, "if I have been indulging in visions, this will dispel them"; and I quaffed deeply and long of the fresh and glowing atmosphere before allowing my thoughts to return for an instant to the strange and harrowing experiences I had just been through. A sense of rising courage and renewed power rewarded me; and blessing the Providence that had granted us a morning of sunshin

e conceived when I

dollars, now credited to my name in the First National Bank of S--, should be given to m

yesterday I had nothing.

at the bottom of the dilemma in which I found myself. For, humiliating as it is to confess, the persistency with which certain impressions remained in my mind, in spite of the glowing daylight that now surrounded me, warned me that it would be for my peace to leave this house before my

t the first approaching intimation that all was not as simple in his relations as was supposed, and that somewhere, somehow, in the breast of certain

or recalled me to a sense of my present duty. Rising, I hurried across the hall to the sick-chamber, and was

less wish to see her mother at once, you had better

in reaching my room before the two brothers and their sister appeared at the top of the stairs. I had thus a full opportunity of observing them, and

ed with faultless taste and with an attention to detail that at a moment like the present struck one with a sense of painful incongruity, she advanced, a breathing image of fashi

t look did not tend to calm my already disturbed thoughts, and, anxious to efface its impression, I impulsively descended the stairs and strolled out on the lawn, asking myself what was meant by the difference in manner which I had discerned in these two brothers towards their sister. For while the whole bearing of the younger had expressed interest in this pretty, careless butterfly of a woma

my ramble. And it was a pleasure! For however solemn and austere might be the interior of the Pollard mansion, without here on the lawn all was cheeriness, bloom, and verdure; the grim row of cedars encircling the house seeming to act as a barrier beyond which its gloom and secrecy could not pass. At all events such was the impres

curiosity. This person was a boy, slight of build, and fantastic in his dress, with a face like sculptured marble, and an eye which, if a little contracted, had a strange glitter in it that made you look and look again. He was kneeling on the floor of the summer-house, and his face, seen by me in profile, was turned with the fixedness of an extreme absorption towards a small opening in the vines, through which he was intently peering. What he saw or wished to see I could not imagine, for nothing but the blank end of the house lay before

, the rich red lip relaxed from its expressive curve, and from being one of the most startling visions I ever saw, he became-what? It would be hard to tell, only not a fully responsible being, I am sure, however near he had just strayed to the border-land of judgment and good sense. Relieved, I scarcely knew wh

are

to answer, so I ret

st immediately adde

in the well." Then sudde

m only staying here.

ey lik

h, and caused me a curious sensation. But I co

be hard to say"-and was going to add

arted from my side on to the lawn, where he stood for an instant, murmuring and l

he sick-room. I found every thing as I had left it an hour or so before, with the exception of my companion; the younger Mr. Pollard having taken the place of his brother. Mrs. Harring

e hall-mirror, as I went by, encouraged me, for it was no weak woman's face I encountered, and if Mrs. Harrington was as beautiful as she was haughty, and as haughty as she was beautiful, Constance Sterling at least asked no favors and showed no embarrassment. Indeed, I had never felt more myself than when I lifted the

ized respect, to his sister. Her greeting was nothing more nor less than what I expected-that is, indifferently civil,-though I thought I detected a li

ndeed, she threw me a hurried glance, half searching, half doubtful in its character, as if she hesitated whether she ought to leave us alone together. Instantly a wild thrill passed through me, and I came pe

rows? I thought he was always

told the truth," and, "They took good care she should overhear no gossip at the station," I was inwardly agitating myself with the ne

n of her face

not my glances, passed to Mr. Pollard, who, motionless in hi

aid he, "what caused the shock

urned, coming

death, Agnes; the servants say so

which convinced me that my surmise of a moment ago was without any foundation. "I did no

tion. At sight of it I felt the cold chills run through my veins, and

rrington, after waiting in manifest surpri

as dr

own

es

he

terd

he

g. Was it because he knew the place too

e mill-stream

t himself too weak to submit to this cross-questioning

s was found in a vat in the cellar of the old mi

nd I heard the words uttered as I thought in her voice; but i

Is he a man to have enemies?-or is that a plac

ing little woman

committed such a deed," he went on, in a changed voice, and after a momentary pause, "it would be impossible for me, and perhaps for any other man, to say; but that he did do it is evident, and that is all I mean to assert. The re

however, premature, for scarcely had he seen her on her way upstai

; I see it in your eyes. Now what explan

it as quickly away. He saw I was agitated, and a slight tremble-it could not be called a smile-dis

t would be easier for an unprejudiced mind to believe that Mr. Barrows had a secret enemy, or that his death was owing to some

panion, looking for an instant away, as if

ere to have been married in a month; d

xed itself upon me, and turn

nge smile passed over his lips, the utter mel

suasiveness of this man. "The woman who knew him best declared it to be so as she was d

y men--"

with accidents

o allow you to consider Mr. Barrows

gaze from which my own could not falter, or that white line showing about the lip he essayed in vain to stead

fficient for me to comm

uld show that Mr. Ba

instant composure, "that he was not a man to awaken jealousy or antagonism; that, accordin

" I e

ke in Mr. Pollard, with a stern insistence. "He fell into the vat intentionally

f the circumstances attending it than was compatible with the perfect ignorance which all men professed to have of them. Did he not see that such words were calculated to awaken suspicion, and that it would be harder, after such a question, to believe he spoke from s

ust now are more important to us than the fact itself. While your mother lies insensible I

words of all peremptoriness, and made it difficult, if not impossible, for me to move. "You have spoken of Miss Reynolds," he resumed; "have told me t

room-mate,

f his face quivered. He had not expected to he

t to struggle with this strong nature. "The proof that she loved me lies in the fact that she has made me heir

moving involuntarily b

you mean confida

wered, coolly, d

er tone; it was steel

you Mr. Barr

already discu

truth about this matter, if only to secure myself from forming false impressions and wrongfully influencing others by them. Bear with me, then, strangers though we are, and if

ot already given them to you? Is i

ve no others-that the ones you have given form the sole foundation for your conclusions. Will you?" he entreated; and while his eyes demanded the t

ve. I therefore returned a quiet affirmative, adding only in qu

but proves her claim to our respect when she attaches such significance

us relief, that was less acceptable to me at that moment than the sarcasm would have been. I therefore did not

u," he murmured, s

nswered, turning with a sense of vict

ne that can be re

that something dark and unknown connected the life of this household with that which had suddenly gone out in the vat at the old mill, but deepened rather than effaced the fatal charm which, contrary to every instinct of my na