LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1921, 21 April 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

7HE GREY COTTAGE : AN OLD FASHIONED GHOsT STORY. \_ \ bridged from the " Argoesy. "J Tae cottage tvas old and trroy. An orchard divided na from our neighbours at the back ; from the front we looked over the thatched roofs of s- i-3W low dwellings to the wide vaUoy beyond, where a lazy river wound in and out through clumps of p >l- - A picturesque mill and lech lay to the left; to tho right a graceful spire rose in the distance Such was my new home. It was chosen partly for it* retirement and its pretty garden, chiefly on account of its low rental and the inexnensive neighbourhood. The nearest town was three miles off; more than that when the floods wore out, as was often the case, for then the short cut acrosa the fields was impassable.

This Grey Cottage—called fo, posmib'y. from the old greystone of which it waa built —had belonged to an aged man of the name of Vallyer. > e had pureh*aed it some fifty years before. By nature, as wo heard, he had been close and miserly, saving up by littlo and little until he was reputed to be very rich. Hia wife h 9 lost shortly after their marriage ; and sinre that time he had led a most solitary life, the only other inmate of the cottage being an housekeeper, very deaf, and as eccentric as himself. Occasionally a married sister would come over to spend a few hours with him, but never stayed over the night. These visits were like angels' in being few r.nd far between ; but in another respect very unlike angeki', for they nsver took place without a quarrel, and a declaration on the part of the siat?r, Mrs Bittern, that she wuld never enter the house again. People said her only reason for making these quarrels up was the old man's money. Be that as it might, virtue proved to be its own reward, for when he died it was found he had left her nothing. The old gentleman waa wonderfully fond of his garden, working in it the greater part of the day, and seldom going beyond it. It was strange that with all his love for bJs flowers he should never fcave cared to show thorn to his neighbours. On the contrary, he did what ha could to keep them from their sight. During his life the plaea was unknown land ; and, consequently, the subjiet of much curiosity, especially to the village children. Mr Vallyer always seemed to be on the look out if they attempted to peer and pry through the hedge or over the gate, and he carried a thick stick, with which he would make sodden lunges nnd thrusts, scattering the young visitors ignomiuiously. It waa not safe for juvenile eyes to gaze into Mr Vallyer's property. Another peculiarity he had. It was to stand by the garden gate in the gloaming leaning on his stick, and watching the few people who went up and down the lonely lane. No matter what the was, unner the bright frosty star 3 of winter or in the mi-t following a heated day of summer, there would stand oid Michael Vallyer. It has been sa ! d that he was supposed to have saved money. None eave a few pounds—could be found after hia deith. It then became known that ho had purchased a life annuity, which bad died with him. The cottage and furniture were left to a nephew, a chemist ia London. Not requiring to live i it himself, he advertised it to be let furnished. Two maiden ladies had taken it first by the month ; but they had quickly given notice to leave, complaining of damp and other disagreeables They had, however, always been considered rather crochety people. I, with my two pretty nieces, Hilda and Cecily, tf ok possession at Michaelmas, a few weeks after they left. We were pleased with our country home The few neighbours were sociable, and I began to look upon the little Gray Cottage as a haven of rest after a changeful and troubled life. As our old servant, Martha, was not quite so active as she used to be, I inquired for a charwoman to come in twice a week to assist her, and was recommended to a Mrs Briggs. She did not do her work ami c s, but hor propensisy to gossip was irrepressible. ' You should see the place in tho spring, ma'am ; when the gilliflowers and the stocks i<. out,' she said to me one day, when I was in the kitchen making a tart, and she stood at the other end of it cleaning brasses and tins ; 'it tooked beautiful when the Miss Jessops first came here.' ' I wonder whit made them leave so sron? ' I remarked ; 'damp, the agent told me ; but I have discovered no damp about the cottage.' 'lt were'nt the damp, ma'am.' was Mrs Rrigg's answer, and I thought her tone significant 'at first they liked it—oh. so mu h ; but in a littlo time they said they must 'eave. Doubt'eas,' lowering her voice, ' the ladies hal their rtnsoDS.'

'Perhaps thoy found it too lonely ? ' ' No, and it weren't exactly the ioreliuess,' returned Mrs Brigg's ; ' not that altogether, ma'am.'

I asked no more ; for gossip, though ona of Mrs Beige's chief failings is not one of mine ; bet went on with my pastry making. Hhe, rubbing fiercely at the copper tea-kettle, began again after an interlude. ' Did you chance to hear nothing ab:>ufc this cottage, ma'am ? ' 'Nothing particular. Why? What 13 th-.ro to hear? ' ' Perhaps I ought nob to tell it yon, ma'am ; you might be sia.-ed,' returned she, as she looked at. ir,e ov?r the kettle. ' Seaved ! Kot I. Pray t' 11 what yon have to tell—if it concerns the cottage,' 'Weil, ma'am, it's a healthy pla:e and a pretty pV.ee, that's for sure. Bu',—it's a':out the old gentleman.' ' The old gentleman ! ' ' Old Mr Vallyer. They say he ;-■ in the house ' 'Why, what do y-m mean?' I asked, feeling somewhat as the woman had said — seaved. ' It's said, ma'am, that hs never went out of it, though his funeral did; that he stopped in to bauut it. Folks talk of something thit happened here years and years ago ; some friend of Mr v allyer's came from over the seas to viait him. Thoy uaed to

qnsrrel, and one day the stranger was found dead in the garden Some thought the death didn't come about by accident; that Vallyer knew more than he paid. Anyway, it's pretty sure he can't rest now but ia about the place troubling it.' I am not especially superstitious, but I confess I did not like the tale. Mr Briggs continued. Her tongue, once oiled, wonld have gone on for ever. ' The first to see him was the widow Munn's children ; he had been deid about a month. I was at her place, helping her with a day's washing.

' Mother,' said they, running in at dusk, 'we have seen the old gentleman at the Grey Cottage ; he's leaning over the gate with his stick, just as he used to be.' 'They weren't frightened, those young children ; they told it as a bit of news. The widow Mann looked at me, and I at her, and then she whipped 'em all ronnd, thinking it might be the best way to put it out of their heads.'

I laughed, and said the children might have baen mistaken.

'So they might, ma'am.' assented Mrs Briggs ; ' The see it was a stranger. ft. young man coming through the village oce moonlight night on his way to London ; he was walking it. He wen - , into the puWicdown there in Greenford, and called for a of ale. While he was sittng by the fire, drinking it, he began to talk. ' What uncivil people you seem to hava in these parts,' says he ; ' I asked an old gentleman, standing at his garden-gate half-way up the hill, whether there was a public-house near, and he would not answer me; ho jaat stared straight in my Jface with gla*syloaking eyes, and never spoke. The company in the tap-room strpped talking at this, and looking at one another. 'What sort of an old gentleman was it,' they asked, ' how was he dreEsed *' ' He wore a long grey coat, with a carious little cape to it,' say a the traveller, *and a spotted white kerchief, tied loosely round his neck, with the ends hanging, and he had a stick in his hand. v ery civil, I must say he was ! I asked him the question again in a louder tone, thinking he might be deaf ; but h-.j never acswerei, only continued to stare at mo.'

'lt was the dress of old Vallyer, ma'am ; he never wore any other, and I'll leave you to judge what the company at the White Hart thought of it ; a deal of talk went about Greenford next day.' ' Where is the old maid-servant ?'

'She went away; they left her in the house to show it, but after a week or two she took the key to the agent, saying there was something she did not like about the place, and she shouldn't stop in it ; just before the Miss Jasaeps took it, that was.' ' No wonder the Miss Jeisops Wf re fright ened away from the cottage if Such tales were tsld to them,' I remarked; why, you Greenford people must have driven them away!' ' Ah,, well, I sea, ma'am,-you don't believa in it ; it w»s eaid the lidies saw him in the hou°e as well as out of it, though I can't speak for certain as to what has happened ; they went away all qniet and composed like ; they didn t want to be laughed at.'

We fonnd that Mr Vallyer's gho3t was firmly believed in by the neighborhood. Fortunately my nieces were sensible girls, and only laoghed. The stories told were made a source of amnsement to them, and their young friends. They treated the subject a good joke ; sometimes intruding irreverently near the confines of that strange and mysterious world beyond whose veil we know so little, and which, it has always seemed to me, should ba treated with respect, if not with awe. On one occasion I felt obliged to expostulate. ' Why, aunt Cameron,' exclaimed Hilda, laughing, 'I am almost sure you believe in the ghost!' Cecily took the matter more seriously, and agreed with me that too much fun had been made.

After that, it was a favorite joke of Hilda's to tell her friends confidently that her aunt and Cecily believed in old Vallyer's reappearance. Weeks passed away, during which we saw nothing, and the winter set in. A young nephew of mine, and cousin of my nieces, came to spend some days with us—chiefly, I believe, on account of the sk'iting. His arrival made Hilda and Cecily think it high time to make a little return for the kindness and hospitality which had been shown to ns ; or, rather, to induce me to think it. I let myself re persuaded, and cards went out for a small evening party. The weather was now intensely cold. The river had been flooded before the frost set in ; not only that, but aho the meadows were frozen over. Wa might almost have been at the North Pole, such an expanse of snow and ice did we overlook. The village saemed skating mad ; and, not content with the day's amusement, our young people would remain on the ice until late at night, for the moon, nearing the full, shono brilliantly in a cloudless sky, Leonard, my nephew, was a clever and amusing young fellow, holding strong views on many subjects, and propounding them with all the energy and decision of youth and inexperience. Old customs And old beliefs were not good enough for him. Ido not think he reilly believed, or rather disbelieved, all he pretended to do. He liked to stations, and delighted in shocking the prejudices of his cousins, especially of Hilda, who was a warm partisan of that very ultra school of theology which is now so prevalent amongst the young and imagina'ive. On one point, however, they both agreed—a strong disbelief in the uupernatural. lb be continued.)