The Gerrard Street Mystery and Other Weird Tales | Page 3

was regarded as a
considerable establishment. In the course of years the owner acquired a
competency, and in 1854 retired from business altogether. From that
time up to the day of his death he lived in his own house on Gerrard
Street.
After mature deliberation, I have resolved to give to the Canadian
public an account of some rather singular circumstances connected with
my residence in Toronto. Though repeatedly urged to do so, I have
hitherto refrained from giving any extended publicity to those
circumstances, in consequence of my inability to see any good to be
served thereby. The only person, however, whose reputation can be
injuriously affected by the details has been dead for some years. He has
left behind him no one whose feelings can be shocked by the disclosure,
and the story is in itself sufficiently remarkable to be worth the telling.

Told, accordingly, it shall be; and the only fictitious element introduced
into the narrative shall be the name of one of the persons most
immediately concerned in it.
At the time of taking up his abode in Toronto--or rather in Little
York--my uncle Richard was a widower, and childless; his wife having
died several months previously. His only relatives on this side of the
Atlantic were two maiden sisters, a few years younger than himself. He
never contracted a second matrimonial alliance, and for some time after
his arrival here his sisters lived in his house, and were dependent upon
him for support. After the lapse of a few years both of them married
and settled down in homes of their own. The elder of them
subsequently became my mother. She was left a widow when I was a
mere boy, and survived my father only a few months. I was an only
child, and as my parents had been in humble circumstances, the charge
of my maintenance devolved upon my uncle, to whose kindness I am
indebted for such educational training as I have received. After sending
me to school and college for several years, he took me into his store,
and gave me my first insight into commercial life. I lived with him, and
both then and always received at his hands the kindness of a father, in
which light I eventually almost came to regard him. His younger sister,
who was married to a watchmaker called Elias Playter, lived at Quebec
from the time of her marriage until her death, which took place in 1846.
Her husband had been unsuccessful in business, and was moreover of
dissipated habits. He was left with one child--a daughter--on his hands;
and as my uncle was averse to the idea of his sister's child remaining
under the control of one so unfit to provide for her welfare, he proposed
to adopt the little girl as his own. To this proposition Mr. Elias Playter
readily assented, and little Alice was soon domiciled with her uncle and
myself in Toronto.
Brought up, as we were, under the same roof, and seeing each other
every day of our lives, a childish attachment sprang up between my
cousin Alice and myself. As the years rolled by, this attachment
ripened into a tender affection, which eventually resulted in an
engagement between us. Our engagement was made with the full and
cordial approval of my uncle, who did not share the prejudice

entertained by many persons against marriages between cousins. He
stipulated, however, that our marriage should be deferred until I had
seen somewhat more of the world, and until we had both reached an
age when we might reasonably be presumed to know our own minds.
He was also, not unnaturally, desirous that before taking upon myself
the responsibility of marriage I should give some evidence of my
ability to provide for a wife, and for other contingencies usually
consequent upon matrimony. He made no secret of his intention to
divide his property between Alice and myself at his death; and the fact
that no actual division would be necessary in the event of our marriage
with each other was doubtless one reason for his ready acquiescence in
our engagement. He was, however, of a vigorous constitution, strictly
regular and methodical in all his habits, and likely to live to an
advanced age. He could hardly be called parsimonious, but, like most
men who have successfully fought their own way through life, he was
rather fond of authority, and little disposed to divest himself of his
wealth until he should have no further occasion for it. He expressed his
willingness to establish me in business, either in Toronto or elsewhere,
and to give me the benefit of his experience in all mercantile
transactions.
When matters had reached this pass I had just completed my
twenty-first year, my cousin being three years younger. Since