The Mill Mystery

The Mill Mystery

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Green #10 in our series by Anna Katherine Green
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Title: The Mill Mystery
Author: Anna Katherine Green
Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6805] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on January 26,
2003]
Edition: 10

Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MILL
MYSTERY ***

Produced by Robert Fite, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the
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THE MILL MYSTERY

BY
ANNA KATHARINE GREEN
AUTHOR OF "THE LEAVENWORTH CASE," "A STRANGE
DISAPPEARANCE," "HAND AND RING," ETC. ETC.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I-------THE ALARM
II------A FEARFUL QUESTION
III-----ADA
IV------THE POLLARDS
V-------DOUBTS AND QUERIES
VI------MRS. POLLARD
VII-----ADVANCES

VIII----A FLOWER FROM THE POLLARD CONSERVATORY
IX------AN UNEXPECTED DISCOVERY
X-------RHODA COLWELL
XI------UNDER THE MILL FLOOR
XII-----DWIGHT POLLARD
XIII----GUY POLLARD
XIV-----CORRESPONDENCE
XV------A GOSSIP
XVI-----THE GREEN ENVELOPE
XVII----DAVID BARROWS
XVIII---A LAST REQUEST
XIX-----A FATAL DELAY
XX------THE OLD MILL
XXI-----THE VAT
XXII----THE CYPHER
XXIII---TOO LATE
XXIV----CONFRONTED
XXV-----THE FINAL BLOW
XXVI----A FELINE TOUCH
XXVII---REPARATION

XXVIII--TWO OR ONE

THE MILL MYSTERY
* * * * *

I.
THE ALARM.
Life, struck sharp on death, Makes awful lightning. --MRS.
BROWNING.
I had just come in from the street. I had a letter in my hand. It was for
my fellow-lodger, a young girl who taught in the High School, and
whom I had persuaded to share my room because of her pretty face and
quiet ways. She was not at home, and I flung the letter down on the
table, where it fell, address downwards. I thought no more of it; my
mind was too full, my heart too heavy with my own trouble.
Going to the window, I leaned my cheek against the pane. Oh, the deep
sadness of a solitary woman's life! The sense of helplessness that
comes upon her when every effort made, every possibility sounded, she
realizes that the world has no place for her, and that she must either
stoop to ask the assistance of friends or starve! I have no words for the
misery I felt, for I am a proud woman, and----But no lifting of the
curtain that shrouds my past. It has fallen for ever, and for you and me
and the world I am simply Constance Sterling, a young woman of
twenty-five, without home, relatives, or means of support, having in her
pocket seventy-five cents of change, and in her breast a heart like lead,
so utterly had every hope vanished in the day's rush of disappointments.
How long I stood with my face to the window I cannot say. With eyes
dully fixed upon the blank walls of the cottages opposite, I stood
oblivious to all about me till the fading sunlight--or was it some stir in
the room behind me?--recalled me to myself, and I turned to find my
pretty room-mate staring at me with a troubled look that for a moment
made me forget my own sorrows and anxieties.
"What is it?" I asked, going towards her with an irresistible impulse of
sympathy.
"I don't know," she murmured; "a sudden pain here," laying her hand

on her heart.
I advanced still nearer, but her face, which had been quite pale, turned
suddenly rosy; and, with a more natural expression, she took me by the
hand, and said:
"But you look more than ill, you look unhappy. Would you mind telling
me what worries you?"
The gentle tone, the earnest glance of modest yet sincere interest, went
to my heart. Clutching her hand convulsively, I burst into tears.
"It is nothing," said I; "only my last resource has failed, and I don't
know where to get a meal for to-morrow. Not that this is any thing in
itself," I hastened to add, my natural pride reasserting itself;