LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1246, 5 March 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT. A GHOST STORY. By Edmund Yates. [ Front the World ] Continued ‘There is no need to d> scribe in detail why the plans as rega ds the house were never carried out,’ recommen ed Horton, after a short, pause * from certain circumstances my my marriage "was broken off. and though I had completed the purchase of the lease, and the h'-use was |tnine. I forebore giving orders for any of the alterations. At length, an opportunity for otner investments offering, I determined to sell my property in Severn square. No sooner had I mentioned the subject to Mr G.’enlu- e than he told me he conld find me an instant purchaser and a large profit It seemed that scarcely had I concluded my bargain before the agent received a letter f>om a legal firm, acting for a client whom they would not name, but who was anxious to acquire the house in Severn s ,-uare. They were told that it had just been sold; but, acti-g on their client’s instructions, from time to time they pertinaciously reiterated their request ; and no soone r was my desire to sell made known to them than they bid some thousand or twelve hundred pounds more than I had paid for the immediate assignment of the lease and furniture. I mentioned the circumstance to my friend Wolfrey here, to whom I had previously described my visit to the haunted hous and all I had heard about it from Mr lenluce, when he implored me, before parting wdh my right, to give him an opportun ty of passing one night alone in the house in Severn-.- quare. I did my best to dissuade him fn-m attempting such an enterprise, but in vain ; the more I argued the more determined he grew, until I finally gave him the permission required. What happened to him there he has now consented to tell us.’ The person alluded to raised his head Dom his hands, in which it had been buried almost from the commencement of Horton’s recital, and looked vaguely round. W e noticed that his face if p tsible was of a paler hue and more bloodless than before, and there was a certain irrepressible twite'sing of the muscles of the mouth which bespoke great mental emotion. He seemed, m rever, t • have lost control of his hands, now clasping them convulsively together, now drumming them nervously on the table. When he spoke his voice was singularly clear ; and though towards the conclusion of his story it failed him now and then, he never seemed at a loss for words in which to express the flowing sequence of his thoughts.

‘ My friend Horton has so cleared the way for me,’ he commenced, * that I shall be able to compress the narrati n of my experience into a small compass. I have always had a leaning towards the preternatural, for the tutor with whom my two or three years after leaving Harrow were passed had a marvellous repertoire of ghost stor ! es, and a liking for mystical lore which he imperceptibly instilled into his pupils. When a certain hook, ca'led, I think, the Night-side of Nature, made its appearance, now many years since, I wrote to the authoress requesting her to name to me the where abouts of certain hou-es in which apparitions were alleged to have been seen ; am) her refusal—on the ground that such information would render her liable to legal action from the {owners of the property-only whetted my desire to have an opportunity of person ally investigating these phenomena. When Horton told mo what he has just related, my curiosity was kindled in no smad degree ; I determined to get his permission to pass a night iu the home, and in the meantime I set myself q ietiy to work to find out all I could about the family to whom it had originally belontred. For a Img time my inquiries wi re fru » • ss ; but at length, at a c>lub, I made the cquainiance of an old gentle man au octogenaiian, who had been a man of pleasure in his day, and whoso still keen facu ties ena l led him to talk with tole able perspicuity of those am ng wh>>m his bygme yeas had beet parsed. He had known something nf Honorable .Miss Bracewhll— Brace-

well as he used always to call her of whom mention has been made as the last tenant of the hou j e. She was a woman, as described by him, of great beauty and singular strength of will, of whom stories had been freely told. One of these stories related to an intrigue which she was supposed to have had with a person of a p osition in life inferior to her own—a foreign seaman or ship’s captain, as I was told -which intrigue had resulted in the birth of a child ; although, according to my informant, the child had never been se> n The intrigue, which had been carried on at the family seat somewhers on the coast of Devonshire, had been the cause of a serious quarrel with her father, from wh m, sora>- time before his death Miss Bracewell had been entirely separated ; and when, at his decease, she arrived to take possess! nof the house in Sevem-square, accomp nied only by her maid, she retired into absolute seclusion, going nowhere, and receiving no c mpany. Her end was a tragical one, and made a stir at the time, 'he had been in the habit at various intervals of sending this maid to the family seat in Devonshire, on missions of whose object my inform ant could tell me nothing, save that they were considered suspicious and unsatisfactory at the inquest which was held. While the maid was absent on one of these mysterious journeys, a neighbouring housemaid, commencing her work in the early morning, saw the area gate of No. 80 standing open. Surprised at so unusual a circumstance, she called the attention of a parsing policeman to it. Investigation was made, and Miss Bracewell wa- found dead in her bed, her e}e.i staring wide open and the marks of pressure on her throat. An entrance into the house had been effected through the lower premises and in the draw-ing-room an escritoire was found forced open and empty, which the maid declared on her return held man}' papers, whose contents were to her unknown, but which had now disappeared. * This narration stimulat d my curiosity still mo e strongly, and I never rested until, under the circumstances you have heard, I obtained Horton’s permission to pass a night alone iu the haunted house. The old woman, of whom our friend spoke, had given up possession and retired, ami I received theke , with the ass- ranee that there was not only no companion for me, but that I should be wholly dependent on myself for the light, fuel, food, and whatever else I might require, as it was utte ly impossible to get anyone in the n ighhourho-d to enter t f, e gho tly precincts even for a few moments. Such an arrangement suited me w»-ll —the ■ 'esire of a lifetime was about to be accomplished ; I had not the slightest feeling of fear; and I joyously put the key—an antiquated and rusty piece of iromougery into my pocket, bidding my servant meet me at 11 o’clock outside the door of No. 80 'evern square and bring with him certain articles, the Hst of which I gave him. * I belonged to three clubs at the time, and that night I dined at the Sefton, where I was certain of thee overeat cuisine and the best wine. I wanted t > dine well and take a sufficient amount of wine, at the same tin e keeping the brain clear and the stomach m good order. More apparations are due to indigesti n, I have heard from scoffers than from supernatural causes; but I knew that M. Fambolant’s lightness of hand was to be trusted, and the bottle, of claret- winch I ordtredwas unexceptionable. At a quarter to eleven I had a hausom called to urive to my destination. Th-re was a cab standing at the door, and my servant was on the pavement. Either he had heard something of the tattle of the neighbourho id, or had b en a. palhd by the look of the house ; for though, in general, a reticent man, and never exceeding his duty, he earnestly implored me to give up any idea of spending the night in “such a ghastly pla e,” and to allow him to make his way home at once, taking the “ things” hack with him. I bade him be silent, telling him I should only require him to put the “things ” just inside the door ; that he couM then be off, but that he must come for me without fail at eight the next morning. He could take the key with him, I added, as I might not be in a condition to let him in. These words ■ nly increasrd his fright; but I would hear no further parl-y ; so pulling the key from my pocket, I fitted it with some difficulty into the lock, turned it. and pushed the door open Although, as I be'ieved, the house had been c o ely shut uj> for months, I was immediately conscious of a breath of wind, damp, salt, and clinging, playing upon me. I imagine my servant felt it too, for he shuddered and pulled his coat closely round him ; bu • he lost not a moment in depositing my parcel on the ground—the brandy flask, pair of candles, box of mat lies, bundles of wood, and dark lantern already alight, which he brought w;th him—and in beating a speedy retreat, lakicg with him, at my reiterated desire, the huge k-y I walked out on to the steps saw him drive off iu his cab, looked round at the carriage-lamps flashing here and there in the square, listened to the distant roar of the traffic as something to which I was saying farewell for ever, then turned back, and pushed the heavy door with my shoulders, it clapped to with a resounding bang, and I was alone in the haunted house. . To he continued x