The Mill Mystery | Page 8

speak any too kindly. Nor did the
lateness of the hour, and the desolate aspect of the unlighted streets,
tend greatly to reassure me.
Indeed, something of the weird and uncanny seemed to mingle with the
whole situation, and I found myself dreading our approach to the house,

which from its old-time air and secluded position had always worn for
me an aspect of gloomy reserve, that made it even in the daylight, a
spot of somewhat fearful interest.
Dr. Farnham, who may have suspected my agitation, though he gave no
token of doing so, suddenly spoke up.
"It is only right to tell you," he said, "that I should never have accepted
the service of an inexperienced girl like you, if any thing was necessary
but watchfulness and discretion. Mrs. Pollard lies unconscious, and all
you will have to do is to sit at her side and wait for the first dawning of
returning reason. It may come at any moment, and it may never come at
all. She is a very sick woman."
"I understand," I murmured, plucking up heart at what did not seem so
very difficult a task.
"Her sons will be within call; so will I. By daybreak we hope to have
her daughter from Newport with her. You do not know Mrs.
Harrington?"
I shook my head. Who was I, that I should know these grand folks?
And yet----But I promised I would say nothing about days now so
completely obliterated.
"She will not be much of an assistance," he muttered. "But it is right
she should come--quite right."
I remembered that I had heard that Mrs. Pollard's daughter was a
beauty, and that she had made a fine match; which, said of Mrs.
Pollard's daughter, must have meant a great deal. I, however, said
nothing, only listened in a vague hope of hearing more, for my
curiosity was aroused in a strange way about these people, and nothing
which the good doctor could have said about them would have come
amiss at this time.
But our drive had been too rapid, and we were too near the house for
him to think of any thing but turning into the gateway with the
necessary caution. For the night was unusually dark, and it was difficult
to tell just where the gate-posts were. We, however, entered without
accident, and in another moment a gleam of light greeted us from the
distant porch.
"They are expecting us," he said, and touched up his horse. We flew up
the gravelled road, and before I could still the sudden heart- beat that
attacked me at sight of the grim row of cedars which surrounded the

house, we were hurrying up between the two huge lions rampant that
flanked the steps, to where a servant stood holding open the door. A
sense of gloom and chill at once overwhelmed me. From the interior,
which I faintly saw stretching before me, there breathed even in that
first moment of hurried entrance a cold and haughty grandeur that,
however rich and awe-inspiring, was any thing but attractive to a nature
like mine.
Drawing back, I let Dr. Farnham take the lead, which he did in his own
brusque way. And then I saw what the dim light had not revealed
before, a young man's form standing by the newel-post of the wide
staircase that rose at our left. He at once came forward, and as the light
from the lamp above us fell fully upon him, I saw his face, and started.
Why? I could not tell. Not because his handsome features struck me
pleasantly, for they did not. There was something in their expression
which I did not like, and yet as I looked at them a sudden sensation
swept over me that made my apprehensions of a moment back seem
like child's play, and I became conscious that if a sudden call of life or
death were behind me urging me on the instant to quit the house, I
could not do it while that face was before me to be fathomed, and, if
possible, understood.
"Ah, I see you have brought the nurse," were the words with which he
greeted Dr. Farnham. And the voice was as thrilling in its tone as the
face was in its expression. "But," he suddenly exclaimed, as his eyes
met mine, "this is not Mrs. Gannon." And he hurriedly drew the doctor
down the hall. "Why have you brought this young girl?" he asked, in
tones which, however lowered, I could easily distinguish. "Didn't you
know there were reasons why we especially wanted an elderly person?"
"No," I heard the doctor say, and then, his back being towards me, I
lost the rest of his speech till the words, "She is no gossip," came