The House of Mystery: An Episode in the Career of Rosalie Le Grange, Clairvoyant

e burning interest as a man, which he had developed in these three weeks for Annette Markham, had quite submerged his interest as a physician. For health, this was a different creature from the

ured the gradual change. She would never be good at tennis; she had no inner strength and no "game sense." But at first she had played in a kind of stupor; again and again she would stand at the backline in a brown study until th

r-lingering too long over that little

dition you're no more the same gir

ison. "And you are no more the sam

is summer coating of bronze over re

e active world"-a shadow fell on her eyes,-"I long for country and farms? How I wish I could live alwa

ions which require air and lig

hat's why Aunt Paula always sends me away for a month every now and

e Mountain House, later from her own admission, he knew who "Aunt Paula" was-"a spirit medium

never the name "Aunt Paula," softened with the accents of affection, proceeded from that low, contralto voice, it hurt the new thing, greater

inst the bark. It was late afternoon. The other house-guests droned over bridge on the piazzas or walked in the far woods; they were alon

like two bees in adjoining cells. The cell-wall has worn thin; we can almost touch. She knows it often before I do. She makes me go to bed early; often she puts me to sleep holding my hand, as she used to do when I was a little girl. But even sleep doesn't much help. I come out

he impatient thought of

leep once after I'd done too much work and fought too much heat in the Cavite Hospital

faraway blue-"and perhaps it is something else. I think it

past the time when he could wait patiently for her confidence, could approach it throug

know everything about you?" After he had said this, he knew that there was no going backward. Doubts, fears

of this in his face, for sh

long ago, but I wasn't

sure of my sympa

ded, a greasy affair in a hall bedroom, he had heard that very phrase. A picture of this woman, so clean and windblown of min

er in the world vibrated behind it. "I have loved you always. You've been with me everywhere I went, because I was looking for you. I've seen a

blush ran over her skin, "no other man has!" She

r sapphirine eyes restrained him. It was not the look of a woman who g

blame, it is I. I've brought it

it on-God brought it on-

more fight it than

hat gracefully uncertain motion which was like flo

nd I must before you go further-I must tell yo

ught; and he thought also how little he cared f

hat I must begin far back-you

. She's Mrs. Paula Markham-" his mind went on, "the great fakir of the spook doc

ible sacrilege of it has never left me. She had a part of truth, and she was desecrating it by guesses and catch words-selling it for money! Aunt Paula is broader than I. 'It's

d a secon

r sympathy!" A note of plea

gard it, but is sure of my sympath

had not hear

puffy, ice-cream clouds, a little new-born pig that somebody put in my bed one morning-daisy-fields like snow-and the darling peep-peep-peep of little bunches of yellow down that I was alwa

em and naming them on my fingers the day that Aunt Paula came

iculate. But at her look of in

st Aunt Paula and me. So she took me away with her. And after that it was always the dreadful noise and confusion of New York, with only my one d

But he swallowed his words.

laying-a ring game, 'Go in and out the window'-I can hear it now. I crowded my little face against the pickets to watch, and two little girls who weren't in the game passed close to me. The nearest one-I 'm sure I'd know her now if I saw her grown up. She was of about my own age, very dark, with the silkiest black hair and the longest black eyelashes that I ever saw. She had a dimple at one corner of her mouth. She wore on her arm a little bracelet with a gold heart dangling from it. I wasn't allowed any jewe

an instant at the sudden softness of her eyes. Then he realized that t

e said, weakly. After

But before I was through with this one, Aunt Paula had to make my destiny clear to me-long befo

r face. From its firmness of health and stre

e do not have to speak even of the most important things. When I come to know more about other people, I wondered

to his eyes like some sybil, divinely

the other world-all you're taught when they teach you to say your prayers. Little by little she made me understand

his lover's impatience was b

he said;

though his fervor had frightened her,

ey sent her to find me, and they directed her to keep me as she has-away from the world. When she first told me that, I was terrified. She had to sit beside me and hold my hand until I went to s

have any more tired t

ibly, but he knew

until the time should come. Though I tried to help it along, though I cried with impatience, I couldn't begin to get voices. I've sat in dark rooms for hours, as Aunt Paula wis

nterested to know why she went. Though I was more than twenty, I'd never had what you might call a flirtation. I'd been kept by

y. So this confidence led to another man-that wa

only an incident-won't you hear m

came into my stateroom. When the power is in her, I know it-and I never saw it so strong as that night. It shone out of her. But that wasn't the strange thing. Only twice before, had I heard th

ound himself struggling to keep back a smile at the picture of some fat old woman in a dressing gown simulati

s,

Light only after you have put aside a great earthly love. This vessel from which I am speaking'-she meant Aunt Paula of course-'yielded to an

humor, "that your Aunt Paul

s voice, "but do

o sleep; and when I woke, I was resigned. I did not see him alone again. Now I understand more clearly. When I have had that earthly love and put it aside, when I have pr

it," he took her up fier

you. And then I did-so suddenly and easily that it made me shudder afterwards for fear the test had come-the agony whi

m him as then; never had she seemed so desirable. He struggled w

ow-it is

alone; none other looked; but had all the world been looking, he might have done what he did. He rose to his feet, he dr

spite of everything, you will marry me! Y

uld have said that she was going to faint. But her color did not change. And suddenly

loved you. In spite of ever

in his arms; then the publicity of the place came to him, and he drew his han

h, don't touch me-don't come near-can't you

you s

should make it hard-the harder I make it, the more I shall g

d then, "Even if you put me aside

l tell me," she

you-call on y

he Guides

surrounded the tennis court, toward the house. Blake saw that the driver of the

u, Miss Markham. Tel

ith which a woman always receives a telegram, tore open the envelope an

TE MA

ome. Advice of Ma

A MA

miling but quivering, too. "Perhaps th