The House of the Whispering Pines

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The House of the Whispering Pines, by Anna

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Title: The House of the Whispering Pines
Author: Anna Katharine Green
Release Date: November 14, 2003 [eBook #10083]
Language: English
Chatacter set encoding: US-ASCII
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THE HOUSE OF THE WHISPERING PINES
By ANNA KATHARINE GREEN
1910
Author of
"The Leavenworth Case," "That Affair Next Door," "One of My Sons," etc.

"Mazes intricate, Eccentric, interwov'd, yet regular Then most, when most irregular they seem".
Milton

CONTENTS
BOOK I
SMOKE
I.--THE HESITATING STEP
II.--IT WAS SHE--SHE INDEED!
III.--"OPEN!"
IV.--THE ODD CANDLESTICK
V.--A SCRAP OF PAPER
VI.--COMMENTS AND REFLECTIONS
VII.--CLIFTON ACCEPTS MY CASE
VIII.--A CHANCE! I TAKE IT
BOOK II
SWEETWATER TO THE FRONT
IX.--"WE KNOW OF No SUCH LETTER"
X.--"I CAN HELP YOU"
XI.--IN THE COACH HOUSE
XII.--"LILA--LILA!"
XIII.--"WHAT WE WANT IS HERE"
XIV.--THE MOTIONLESS FIGURE
XV.--HELEN SURPRISES SWEETWATER
XVI.--62 CUTHBERT ROAD
XVII.--"MUST I TELL THESE THINGS?"
XVIII.--ON IT WAS WRITTEN--
XIX.--"IT'S NOT WHAT YOU WILL FIND"
BOOK III
HIDDEN SURPRISES
XX.---"HE OR YOU! THERE IS NO THIRD"
XXI.--CARMEL AWAKES
XXII.---"BREAK IN THE GLASS!"
XXIII.--AT TEN INSTEAD OF TWELVE
XXIV.--ALL THIS STOOD
XXV.--"I AM INNOCENT"
XXVI.--THE SYLLABLE OF DOOM
XXVII.--EXPECTANCY
XXVIII.--"WHERE Is MY BROTHER?"
BOOK IV
WHAT THE PINES WHISPERED
XXIX.--"I REMEMBERED THE ROOM"
XXX.--"CHOOSE"
XXXI.--"WERE HER HANDS CROSSED THEN?"
XXXII.--AND I HAD SAID NOTHING!
XXXIII.--THE ARROW OF DEATH
XXXIV.--"STEADY!"
XXXV.--"As IF IT WERE A MECCA"
XXXVI.--THE SURCHARGED MOMENT

BOOK ONE
SMOKE

I
THE HESITATING STEP
To have reared a towering scheme Of happiness, and to behold it razed, Were nothing: all men hope, and see their hopes Frustrate, and grieve awhile, and hope anew; But--
A Blot in the 'Scutcheon.
The moon rode high; but ominous clouds were rushing towards it--clouds heavy with snow. I watched these clouds as I drove recklessly, desperately, over the winter roads. I had just missed the desire of my life, the one precious treasure which I coveted with my whole undisciplined heart, and not being what you call a man of self-restraint, I was chafed by my defeat far beyond the bounds I have usually set for myself.
The moon--with the wild skurry of clouds hastening to blot it out of sight--seemed to mirror the chaos threatening my better impulses; and, idly keeping it in view, I rode on, hardly conscious of my course till the rapid recurrence of several well-known landmarks warned me that I had taken the longest route home, and that in another moment I should be skirting the grounds of The Whispering Pines, our country clubhouse. I had taken? Let me rather say, my horse; for he and I had traversed this road many times together, and he had no means of knowing that the season was over and the club-house closed. I did not think of it myself at the moment, and was recklessly questioning whether I should not drive in and end my disappointment in a wild carouse, when, the great stack of chimneys coming suddenly into view against the broad disk of the still unclouded moon, I perceived a thin trail of smoke soaring up from their midst and realised, with a shock, that there should be no such sign of life in a house I myself had closed, locked, and barred that very day.
I was the president of the club and felt responsible. Pausing only long enough to make sure that I had yielded to no delusion, and that fire of some kind was burning on one of the club-house's deserted hearths, I turned in at the lower gateway. For reasons which I need not now state, there were no bells attached to my cutter and consequently my approach was noiseless. I was careful that it should be so, also careful to stop short of the front door and leave my horse and sleigh in the black depths of the pine-grove pressing up to the walls on either side. I was sure that all was not as it should be inside these walls, but, as God lives, I had no idea what was amiss or how deeply my own destiny was involved in the step I was about to take.
Our club-house stands, as it may be necessary to remind you, on a knoll thickly wooded with the ancient trees I have mentioned. These trees--all pines and of a growth unusual and of an aspect well-nigh hoary--extend only to the rear end of the house, where a wide stretch of gently undulating ground opens at once upon the eye, suggesting to all lovers of golf the admirable use to which it is put from early spring to latest fall. Now, links, as well as parterres and driveways, are lying under an even blanket of winter snow, and even the building, with its picturesque gables and