The Filigree Ball | Page 2

his
acrid retort.
"0h, some five months."

His good nature, or what passed for such in this irascible old man,
returned in an instant; and he curtly but not unkindly remarked:
"You haven't learned much in that time." Then, with a nod more
ceremonious than many another man's bow, he added, with sudden
dignity: "I am of the elder branch an live in the cottage fronting the old
place. I am the only resident on the block. When you have lived here
longer you will know why that especial neighborhood is not a favorite
one with those who can not boast of the Moore blood. For the present,
let us attribute the bad name that it holds to - malaria." And with a
significant hitch of his lean shoulders which set in undulating motion
every fold of the old-fashioned cloak he wore, he started again for the
door.
But my curiosity was by this time roused to fever heat. I knew more
about this house than he gave me credit for. No one who had read the
papers of late, much less a man connected with the police, could help
being well informed in all the details of its remarkable history. What I
had failed to know was his close relationship to the family whose name
for the last two weeks had been in every mouth.
"Wait!" I called out. "You say that you live opposite the Moore house.
You can then tell me -"
But he had no mind to stop for any gossip.
"It was all in the papers," he called back. "Read them. But first be sure
to find out who has struck a light in the house that we all know has not
even a caretaker in it."
It was good advice. My duty and my curiosity both led me to follow it.
Perhaps you have heard of the distinguishing feature of this house; if so,
you do not need my explanations. But if, for any reason, you are
ignorant of the facts which within a very short time have set a final seal
of horror upon this old, historic dwelling, then you will be glad to read
what has made and will continue to make the Moore house in
Washington one to be pointed at in daylight and shunned after dark, not

only by superstitious colored folk, but by all who are susceptible to the
most ordinary emotions of fear and dread.
It was standing when Washington was a village. It antedates the Capitol
and the White House. Built by a man of wealth, it bears to this day the
impress of the large ideas and quiet elegance of colonial times; but the
shadow which speedily fell across it made it a marked place even in
those early days. While it has always escaped the hackneyed epithet of
"haunted," families that have moved in have as quickly moved out,
giving as their excuse that no happiness was to be found there and that
sleep was impossible under its roof. That there was some reason for
this lack of rest within walls which were not without their tragic
reminiscences, all must acknowledge. Death had often occurred there,
and while this fact can be stated in regard to most old houses, it is not
often that one can say, as in this case, that it was invariably sudden and
invariably of one character. A lifeless man, lying outstretched on a
certain hearthstone, might be found once in a house and awaken no
special comment; but when this same discovery has been made twice, if
not thrice, during the history of a single dwelling, one might surely be
pardoned a distrust of its seemingly home-like appointments, and
discern in its slowly darkening walls the presence of an evil which if
left to itself might perish in the natural decay of the e place, but which,
if met and challenged, might strike again and make another blot on its
thrice-crimsoned hearthstone.
But these are old fables which I should hardly, presume to mention, had
it not been for the recent occurrence which has recalled them to all
men's minds and given to this long empty and slowly crumbling
building an importance which has spread its fame from one end of the
country to the other. I refer to the tragedy attending the wedding lately
celebrated there.
Veronica Moore, rich, pretty and wilful, had long cherished a strange
liking for this frowning old home of her ancestors, and, at the most
critical time of her life, conceived the idea of proving to herself and to
society at large that no real ban lay upon it save in the imagination of
the superstitious. So, being about to marry the choice of her young

heart, she caused this house to be opened for the wedding