Chapter 1

I was riding between Albany and Poughkeepsie. It was raining furiously,
and my horse, already weary with long travel, gave unmistakable signs of
discouragement. I was, therefore, greatly relieved when, in the most
desolate part of the road, I espied rising before me the dim outlines of
a house, and was correspondingly disappointed when, upon riding forward,
I perceived that it was but a deserted ruin I was approaching, whose
fallen chimneys and broken windows betrayed a dilapidation so great
that I could scarcely hope to find so much as a temporary shelter
therein.

Nevertheless, I was so tired of the biting storm that I involuntarily
stopped before the decayed and forbidding structure, and was, in truth,
withdrawing my foot from the stirrup, when I heard an unexpected
exclamation behind me, and turning, saw a chaise, from the open front of
which leaned a gentleman of most attractive appearance.

"What are you going to do?" he asked.

"Hide my head from the storm," was my hurried rejoinder. "I am tired,
and so is my horse, and the town, according to all appearances, must be
at least two miles distant."

"No matter if it is three miles! You must not take shelter in that
charnel-house," he muttered; and moved along in his seat as if to show
me there was room beside him.

"Why," I exclaimed, struck with sudden curiosity, "is this one of the
haunted houses we hear of? If so, I shall certainly enter, and be much
obliged to the storm for driving me into so interesting a spot." I
thought he looked embarrassed. At all events, I am sure he hesitated for
a moment whether or not to ride on and leave me to my fate. But his
better impulses seemed to prevail, for he suddenly cried: "Get in with
me, and leave mysteries alone. If you want to come back here after you
have learned the history of that house, you can do so; but first ride on
to town and have a good meal. Your horse will follow easily enough after
he is rid of your weight."

It was too tempting an offer to be refused; so thankfully accepting his
kindness, I alighted from my horse, and after tying him to the back of
the chaise, got in with this genial stranger. As I did so I caught
another view of the ruin I had been so near entering.

"Good gracious!" I exclaimed, pointing to the structure that, with its
projecting upper story and ghastly apertures, presented a most
suggestive appearance, "if it does not look like a skull!"

My companion shrugged his shoulders, but did not reply. The comparison
was evidently not a new one to him.

That evening, in a comfortable inn parlor, I read the following
manuscript. It was placed in my hands by this kindly stranger, who in so
doing explained that it had been written by the last occupant of the
old inn I was so nearly on the point of investigating. She had been its
former landlady, and had clung to the ancient house long after decay had
settled upon its doorstep and desolation breathed from its gaping
windows. She died in its north room, and from under her pillow the
discolored leaves were taken, the words of which I now place before you.

JANUARY 28, 1775.

I do not understand myself. I do not understand my doubts nor can I
analyze my fears. When I saw the carriage drive off, followed by the
wagon with its inexplicable big box, I thought I should certainly regain
my former serenity. But I am more uneasy than ever. I cannot rest, and
keep going over and over in my mind the few words that passed between us
in their short stay under my roof. It is her face that haunts me. It
must be that, for it had a strange look of trouble in it as well as
sickness; but neither can I forget his, so fair, so merry, and yet so
unpleasant, especially when he glanced at her and--as I could not help
but think before they went away--when he glanced at me. I do not like
him, and the chills creep over me whenever I remember his laugh, which
was much too frequent to be decent, considering how poorly his young
wife looked.

They are gone, and their belongings with them; but I am as much afraid
as if they were still here. Why? That is what I cannot tell. I sit in
the room where they slept, and feel as strange and terrified as if I had
encountered a ghost there. I dread to stay and dread to move and write,
because I must relieve myself in some way--that is, if I am to have any
sleep to-night. Am I ill, or was there something unexplained and
mysterious in their actions? Let me go over the past and see.

They came last evening about twilight. I was in the front of the house,
and seeing such a good-looking couple in the carriage, and such a pile
of baggage with them that they had to have an extra wagon to carry it, I
ran out in all haste to welcome them. She had a veil drawn over her
face, and it was so thick that I could not see her features, but her
figure was slight and graceful, and I took a fancy to her at once,
perhaps because she held her arms out when she saw me, as if she thought
she beheld in me a friend. He did not please me so well, though there
is no gainsaying that he is handsome enough, and speaks, when he wishes
to, with a great deal of courtesy. But I thought he ought to give his
attention to his young and ailing wife, instead of being so concerned
about his baggage. Had that big box of his contained gold, he could not
have looked at it more lovingly or been more anxious about its handling.
He said it held books; but, pshaw! what is there in books, that a man
should love them better than his wife, and watch over their welfare with
the utmost concern, while allowing a stranger to help her out of the
carriage and up the inn steps?

But I will not dwell any longer upon this. Men are strange beings, and
must not be judged by rules that apply to women. Let me see if I can
remember when it was that I first saw her face. Ah, yes; it was in the
parlor. She had taken a seat there while her husband looked through the
house and decided which room to take. There were four empty, and two of
them were the choicest and airiest in the inn, but he passed by these
and insisted upon taking one that was stuffy with disuse, because it was
on the ground floor, and so convenient for us to bring his great box
into.

His great box! I was so provoked at this everlasting concern about his
great box, that I ran to the parlor, intending to ask the lady herself
to interfere. But when I got to the threshold I paused, and did not
speak, for the lady--or Mrs. Urquhart, as I presently found she called
herself--had risen from her seat and was looking in the glass with an
expression so sad and searching that I forgot my errand and only thought
of comforting her. But the moment she heard my step she drew down the
veil which she had tossed back, and coming quickly toward me, asked if
her husband had chosen a room.

I answered in the affirmative, and began to complain that it was not a
very cheerful one. But she paid small attention to my words, and
presently I found myself following her to the apartment designated. She
entered, making a picture, as she crossed the threshold, which I shall
not readily forget. For in her short, quick walk down the hall she had
torn the bonnet from her head, and though she was not a strictly
beautiful woman, she was sufficiently interesting to make her every
movement attractive. But that is not all. For some reason the moment
possessed an importance for her which I could not measure. I saw it in
her posture, in the pallor of her cheeks and the uprightness of her
carriage. The sudden halt she made at the threshold, the half-startled
exclamation she gave as her eyes fell on the interior, all showed that
she was laboring under some secret agitation. But what was the cause of
that agitation I have not been able to determine. She went in, but as
she did so, I heard her murmur:

"Oak walls! Ah, my soul! it has come soon!"

Not a very intelligible exclamation, you will allow, but as intelligible
as her whole conduct. For in another moment every sign of emotion had
left her, and she stood quite calm and cold in the center of the room.
But her pallor remained, and I cannot make sure now whether this
betokened weary resignation or some secret and but half recognized fear.

Had I looked at him instead of at her, I might have understood the
situation better. But, though I dimly perceived his form drawn up in the
empty space at the left of the door, it was not until she had passed him
and flung herself into a chair, that I thought to look in his direction.
Then it was too late, for he had turned his face aside and was gazing
with rather an obtrusive curiosity at the old-fashioned room, murmuring,
as he did so, some such commonplaces to his wife as:

"I hope you are not fatigued, my dear. Fine old house, this. Quite
English in style, eh?"

To all of which she answered with a nod or word, till suddenly, without
look or warning, she slipped from her chair and lay perfectly insensible
upon the dark boards of the worm-eaten floor.

I uttered an exclamation, and so did he; but it was my arms that lifted
her and laid her on the bed. He stood as if frozen to his place for a
moment, then he mechanically lifted his foot and set it with an air of
proprietorship on the box before which he had been standing.

"Strange and inexplicable conduct," thought I, and looked the
indignation I could not but feel. Instantly he left his position and
hastened to my side, offering his assistance and advice with that
heartless officiousness which is so unbearable when life and death are
at stake.

I accepted as little of his help as was possible, and when, after
persistent effort on my part, I saw her lids fluttering and her breast
heaving, I turned to him with as inoffensive an air as my mingled
dislike and distrust would admit, and asked how long they had been
married. He flushed violently, and with a sudden rage that at once
robbed him of that gentlemanly appearance which, in him, was but the
veneer to a coarse and brutal nature, he exclaimed:

"---- you! and by what right do you ask that?"

But before I could reply he recovered himself and was all false polish
again, bowing with exaggerated politeness, as he exclaimed:

"Excuse me; I have had much to disturb me lately. My wife's health has
been very feeble for months, and I am worn out with anxiety and
watching. We are now on our way to a warmer climate, where I hope she
will be quite restored."

And he smiled a very strange and peculiar smile, that went out like a
suddenly extinguished candle, as he perceived her eyes suddenly open,
and her gaze pass reluctantly around the room, as if forced to a
curiosity against which she secretly rebelled.

"I think Mrs. Urquhart will do very well now," was his hurried remark at
this sight. He evidently wished to be rid of me, and though I hated
to leave her, I really found nothing to say in contradiction to his
statement, for she certainly looked completely restored. I therefore
turned away with a heavy heart toward the door, when the young wife,
suddenly throwing out her arms, exclaimed:

"Do not leave me in this horrible room alone! I am afraid of
it--actually afraid! Couldn't you have found some spot in the house less
gloomy, Edwin?"

I came back.

"There are plenty of rooms--" I began.

But he interrupted me without any ceremony.

"I chose this room, Honora, for its convenience. There is nothing
horrible about it, and when the lamps are lit you will find it quite
pleasant. Do not be foolish. We sleep here or nowhere, for I cannot
consent to go upstairs."

She answered nothing, but I saw her eyes go traveling once again around
the walls, followed in a furtive way by his. Whereupon I looked about
me, too, and tried to get a stranger's impression of the place. I was
astonished at its effect upon my imagination. Though I had been in and
out of the room fifty times before I had never noticed till now the
extreme dismalness and desolation of its appearance.

Once used as an auxiliary parlor, it had that air of uninhabitableness
which clings to such rooms, together with a certain something else,
equally unpleasant, to which at that moment I could give no name, and
for which I could neither find then nor now any sufficient reason. It
was paneled with oak far above our heads, and as the walls above had
become gray with smoke, there was absolutely no color in the room, not
even in the hangings of the gaunt four-poster that loomed dreary and
repelling from one end of the room. For here, as elsewhere, time had
been at work, and tints that were once bright enough had gradually been
subdued by dust and smoke into one uniform dimness. The floor was black,
the fireplace empty, the walls without a picture, and yet it was neither
from this grayness nor from this barrenness that one recoiled. It was
from something else--something that went deeper than the lack of charm
or color--something that clung to the walls like a contagion and caught
at the heart-strings where they are weakest, smothering hope and
awakening horror, till in each faded chair a ghost seemed sitting,
gazing at you with immovable eyes that could tell tales, but would not.

There was but one window in the room, and that looked toward the west.
But the light that should have entered there was frightened, also, and
halted on the ledge without, balked by the thick curtains that heavily
enshrouded it. A haunted chamber! or so it appeared at that moment to my
somewhat excited fancy, and for the first time in my life, here, I felt
a dread of my own house, and experienced the uncanny sensation of some
one walking over my grave.

But I soon recovered myself. Nothing of a disagreeable nature had ever
happened in this room, nor had we had any special reason for shutting it
up, except that it was in an out-of-the-way place, and not usually
considered convenient, notwithstanding Mr. Urquhart's opinion to the
contrary.

"Never mind," said I, with a last effort to soothe the agitated woman.
"We will let in a little light, and dissipate some of these shadows."
And I attempted to throw back the curtains of the window, but they fell
again immediately and I experienced a sensation as of something ghostly
passing between us and the light.

Provoked at my own weakness, I tore the curtains down and flung them
into a corner. A straggling beam of sunset color came in, but it looked
out of place and forlorn upon that black floor, like a stranger who
meets with no welcome. The poor young wife seemed to hail it, however,
for she moved instantly to where it lay and stood as if she longed for
its warmth and comfort. I immediately glanced at the fireplace.

"I will soon have a rousing fire for you," I declared. "These old
fireplaces hold a large pile of wood."

I thought, but I must be mistaken, that he made a gesture as if about to
protest, but, if so, reason must have soon come to his aid, for he said
nothing, though he looked uneasy, as I moved the andirons forward and
made some other trivial arrangements for the fire which I had promised
them.

"He thinks I am never going," I muttered to myself, and took pleasure in
lingering; for, anxious as I was to have the room heated up for her
comfort, I knew that every moment I stayed there would be one less for
her to spend with her surly husband alone.

At last I had no further excuse for remaining, and so with the final
remark that if the fire failed to give them cheer we had a sitting room
into which they could come, I went out. But I knew, even while saying
it, that he would not grant her the opportunity of enjoying the sitting
room's coziness; that he would not let her out of his sight, if he did
out of the room, and that for her to remain in his presence was to be in
darkness, solitude and gloom, no matter what walls surrounded her or in
what light she stood.

My impressions were not far wrong. Mr. and Mrs. Urquhart came to supper,
but that was all. Before the others had finished their roast they had
eaten their pudding and gone; and though he had talked, and laughed, and
shown his white teeth, the impression left behind them was a depressing
one which even Hetty felt, and she has anything but a sensitive nature.

I went to the room once again in the evening. I found them both seated,
but in opposite parts of the room; he by his great box, and she in an
easy chair which I had caused to be brought down from my own room for
her especial use. I did not look at him, but I did at her, and was
astonished to see, first, how dignified she was; and next how pretty.
Had she been happy and at her ease, I should probably have been afraid
of her, for the firelight, which now shone on her wan young cheek,
brought out evidences of character and culture in her expression which
proved her to be, by birth and training, of a position superior to what
one would be led to expect from her husband's aspect and manner. But she
was not happy nor at her ease, and wore, instead of the quiet and
commanding look of the great lady, such an expression of secret dread
that I almost forgot my position of landlady, and should certainly, if
he had not been there, fallen at her side and taken her poor, forsaken
head upon my breast. But that silent, immovable form, sitting
statue-like beside his big box, smiling, for aught I knew, but if so,
breathing out a chill that forbade all exhibition of natural feeling,
held me in check, as it held her, so that I merely inquired whether
there was anything I could do for her; and when she shook her head,
starting a tear down her cheek as she did so, I dared do nothing more
than give her one look of sympathetic understanding, and start for the
door.

A command from him stopped me.

"My wife will need a slight supper before she goes to bed," said he.
"Will you be good enough to see that one is brought?"

She roused herself up with quite a startled look of wonder.

"Why, Edwin," she began, "I never have been in the habit--"

But he hushed her at once.

"I know what is best for you," said he. "A small plate of luncheon, Mrs.
Truax; and let it be nice and inviting."

I courtesied, gave her another glance, and went out. Her countenance had
not lost its look of wonder. Was he going to be considerate, after all?

The lunch was prepared and taken to her.

Not long after this the inn quieted down, and such guests as were in the
house prepared for rest. Midnight came; all was dark in room and hall. I
was sure of this, for I went through the whole building myself, contrary
to my usual habit, which was to leave this task to my man-of-all-work,
Burritt. All was dark, all was quiet, and I was just dropping off to
sleep, when there shot up suddenly from below a shriek, which was
quickly smothered, but not so quickly that I did not recognize in it
that tone which is only given by hideous distress or mortal fear.

"It is Mrs. Urquhart!" I cried in terror, to myself; and plunging into
my clothes, I hurried down stairs.