Vernie! This wont do! and Eve glared at her, You little minx, I believe you did do it!
Dont you look at me like that, Eve Carnforth! Stop it! You scare me. Vernie fairly cowered before Eves basilisk eyes. I believe you did it!
There, there, girls, broke in Tracy, with his gentle smile, dont get to hair-pulling. If weve all finished breakfast, lets now hear the story of the house, and then we can tell if its patron ghost is the sort given to exchanging bedroom furniture o nights.
Yes, agreed Norma, Im crazy to hear the story. Wheres Mr. Stebbins, does anybody know?
Ill dig him up, Landon assured them. Where shall we congregate?
In the drawing room, said Milly, thats the only room Im not afraid of.
Im fearfully afraid of that! said Tracy, in mock terror. Those rep lambrequins get on my nerves!
Arent they awful! and Norma laughed. They dont frighten me, but they jar my æsthetics terribly.
No, said Elijah Stebbins, firmly, as the conclave began, not in that there parlour. Here in the hall. You folks want this house, you want the story of this house, now you sit here to hear it.
Very well, said Braye, agreeably. Just as you say, Mr. Stebbins. Now begin at the beginning, but dont drool too long a spiel.
The whole party grouped themselves in the great hall, and for the first time began to take in the details of its appointments. Though in disrepair as to walls and cornices, the lines of its architecture were fine and it was of noble proportions; the staircase was beautifully planned; and the wonderful bronze doors, which they had not examined the night before, were truly works of art.
The old Montgomery who brought them doors from Italy, pretty much built the house behind em, Stebbins volunteered, and them colyums, of course, come with the doors. Theyre some valuble, Im told. You see, the doors is the same outside and in, and the colyums is, too. Well, then, he had the vestibule of murhoggany, to sort o set off the bronze, I spose, and the rest of the walls is marble, solid old Vermont marble, which Lord knows was to be had for the pickin, up here.
Get along to the story, Steb, urged Landon.
Yes, sir. Well, the Montgomery that built this house, though, it was part built before, he added on to his fathers house, well, he was a daredevil, and a tyrant. Little mite of a man, but full of the old Nick. And, as those little men will do, he married a reglar Hessian of a woman. Big, sort o long and gaunt, they say she was, and a termagant for sure! She led him a life, and also, he led her one. For he was a terror and so was she. What he lacked in size he made up in temper, and she had both. Well, heres the story.
He took sick, and she nursed him. They didnt have trained nurses and specialists in them days. Now some says, he was jest naturally took sick and some says, that she give him slow poison. But, be that as it may, one night, she give him prussic acid, and he died. She threw a shawl over her head, and ran screamin to the village for the doctor. I spose remorse got her, for she confessed, and said I killed him! I killed him! At four oclock I killed him!
She went crazy, they say, then and there. Well, the doctor he said hed come right away, but she ran home first. And he followeds fasts he could, and when he come, here was the woman, and she was a washin the dead mans lips, she said, to get the smell of the bitter ammonds off, you know, prussic acid is for all the world the smell of bitter almonds. The doctor, he found the man was really dead, and he was for havin her arrested, but she was so plumb crazy, he decided to take her to an asylum instead.
He had to go off to get help, and he left her, here alone in this house with the body. They was in that room, Stebbins pointed to the room with the locked door, at the right hand of the hall as one entered, the room with the tassels, its called.
Why is it called that? broke in Eve, whose piercing eyes were fairly glittering with excitement, what sort of tassels?
Great heavy tassels on the curtains and lambaquins, maam, want to see it?
Not now, ordained Landon, the story first.
Well, resumed Stebbins, they was in that room, the dead husband and the live wife, when the doctor went away, and because he knew she was out of her head, he locked em in. And when he came back she was setting there, just where hed left her, still in a dazed sort o stupor, and the corpse was gone.
Gone! where? rasped out the Professor.
Nobody knows. Nobody ever knew. It had just disappeared from off the face of the earth. The doctor and the village folks all agreed that it was sperrited away. Cause that woman, she couldnt get out o the doors to cart it off, and she couldnt a got out of a winder with it, without showin some signs, and if she had, what in the world could she a done with it? It wasnt buried nowhere around, and if shed a threw it in the lake, sposin shed got out a winder, howd she got in again? Anyhow, thats the story, and they all said she was a witch and she bewitched the body away, sos the doctor and sheriff couldnt smell the prussic acid on it and hang her for murder. They searched and searched but they couldnt find no signs of her havin even moved outen her chair. She sat there like a dead woman herself, when the doctor left her and likewise when he come back.
The tale is very circumstantial, observed Gifford Bruce, a bit drily.
Im tellin it as Ive many a time heard it, sir, said Stebbins, a little resentfully. This here storys been common talk around these parts a many years, and I aint one to add to nor take from it.
Go on, commanded Landon, briefly.
They put her away, in a loonytic asylum, and she died in it. They never found hide nor hair of the dead man, and the place fell to some kin that lived down Pennsylvania way. They come up here for a while, I blieve, but the hant scared em off. Its been sold some several times and at last it fell to my fathers family. Now its mine, and its a white elephant to me. I cant sell or rent it, and so you folks may well believe I jumped at the chance to have you take it for a spell.
We havent heard about the haunt yet, said Norma. She spoke quietly, but her lips quivered a little, and her fingers were nervously picking at her handkerchief.
That, and Stebbins looked even more sombre than he had, thats my own experience, so I can give it to you first hand.
I come here to live, bout ten years ago, and I was plucky enough to hoot at ghost stories and tales o hants.
So I set out to sleep in that that room with the tassels, out o sheer bravado. But I got enough of it.
The mans head fell on his breast and he paused in his narrative.
Go on, said Landon, less brusquely than before.
Milly stirred nervously. Dont let him tell the rest, Wynne, she said.
Oh, yes, dear. Remember, this is what were here for.
Most of the men shifted their positions; Hardwick leaned forward, both hands on his knees. Gifford Bruce sat with one arm flung carelessly over his chair back, a slight smile on his face.
Braye was beside Norma, and watched alternately her face and Eves, while Tracy was holding Vernies hand, and his gentle calm kept the volatile child quiet.