| Show f JW Vr fl t. t 1111 a d th e H 0 U SE l f s THE heat beat bore down muffling muffing breathless s not even eD relieved by their close closi proximity to the Potomac Ahead of them 81 against the declining sun suds of dark darl clouds were climbing Even the rare views view 0 opening out at certain certain bends In the twisting rn road told were vere lost 1 to them for sight eight seemed eeme blocked blocket by y that dense mass of potential potentia l thunder Diana slipped off her hat ant and eared her blond head wearily against i ileather a aleather aleather leather cushion Slumping rather father far down ia is her ber low seat in the roadster she offered offeree a 8 picture of boyish slender grace Out o othe of the tail toll of his eye eve George Trench noted gated her hei perfection without pleasure In his present presen state of parboiled discomfort her cool crisps crispness crispness crisp crisp- s ness irritated him bim lie Ile actually wished that thai for or once she would look hot or awkward or 01 disheveled J Their friends claimed it an on outrage that thai they did no not marry By birth and tastes th they y were well mated already he he a Trench a of Albany and the engineering member of a prominent linn firm of Washington architects n i she a Virginia Treadwell and an on interior decorator who in spite of her youth was wu c- c already making herself felt in the artistic r world orld They had played together as IlS schoolchildren schoolchildren school school- o children when Trench's father was serving two VO terms as ps Senator and Dianas Diana's family represented the venerated cave dwellers in an ugly but dignified ed Louse house on an Capitol Hill When Trench took a job in Washing ton after the war and renewed old friendship friend friend- I ship it was natural for their mutual acquaintances ac ac- ac- ac to take an interest in the affair But som somehow how Nature for reasons of her own dislikes these made heaven-made marriages i It almost seems as though in her J she counts on the clash and shock of the unexpected to strike a new spark of life me Into the world And so in the face of reason reason reason rea rea- son and perhaps because of it Nature had hadJ restrained Diana and Trent to no more than J I the best of friendships which h to be sure surl wore a trifle thin at times since they were both both oth young and in their separate ways imf imI im- im f I r J Jv v dr you say h had d bought the place p A Diana inquired listlessly Good of you V J to throw the decorating my way Yay old son Thanks a lot if I haven't mentioned it be be- fore foie Bender Congressman Bender Congressman Milo P. P Bender Bender- bought it Wants it for a summer place wll when n the House is in session He Be picked you 1011 himself She wrinkled her white brows from which waves of gold hair swept backward crisp and flat you doing with it Remodeling Bathroom or two I believe and seeing If some badly placed doors can be changed without weakening the structure I haven't seen the house myself yet THEY HEY rumbled Aver atall a a taU tall iron bridge paved with rattling wooden boards after aCter which the Leesburg road slightly from the course of the river on an ascending grade The heat fell closer moister Under its clammy hand band they relapsed re- re relapsed re re- lapsed once more into a silence until Trench snapped the car into a rutt rutted d lane running back to the edge of the bluff now far above the level of the river Many grunts and moans had been shaken from the two of them by the time Trench jerked his malj maltreated mal- mal treated roadster to a standstill before a low j f brick wall backed by a line of cedars 0 Sweet approach Diana vouchsafed sf l patting herr her waved hair into place and castIng cast- cast log Ing a morose eye on the path cow-path they had hadI I if just tra traversed f Money roney in little Georgies Georgie's jeans that gentleman remarked with somber exultation exultation tion Im supposed to do the road over 4 for for him And he be has kale to burn p Hell need neld it she growled gro wrestling with a once white gate Just look at that lawn I hate these American cedars ceda s any any- l I way nay a They ski skirted a 11 grove glove partially concealing t t a n square Colonial house of medium m size sze and andr r guided by a little wind break of the eternal tr l cedars made their way to the rear Here a surprise awaited them for only a ledge barel barely twenty feet wide separated the house i. i from a deep gorge at the foot of which the river ran m muttering over its bed of sharp rocks J j Well of all things things- things things-or Trench wondered t- t r There must have been a landslide or orr r something Diana assured him No one i in a sane mind would deliberately tely build a f house bouse as near the edge as that Why if r the earth cut away the least bit more mOler morer more mOle r r Trench Trench- approached the gorge and peered over Theres a big boulder jutting out a co couple 0 o dozen feet below us Think Thin Ill I'll go down and give it a look c He lie took off his coat and eased himself over ver the stark edge At such moments it s annoyed him bins that Diana did not follow him with little feminine useless admonitions I. I 1 i He did dit not realize that it t was her point of ri r honor to be as cool about the minor dangers h t of life as any man but that she was waiting wait wait- lj ing fog with clenched teeth for his reappear reappear- I lance ance anee t 1 l He lIe climbed back to safety after an in- in i. i t time and her Find anything was as casually cold as a mountain brook c The boulders boulder's certainly what's holding Y f. f us up though whether its it's an isolated one s' s I or or the spur of a whole supporting ledge of l r rock I cant can't say And nd the r rivers river's els cut ut under it badly too Think Ill I'll recommend some r shoring up down there there there- there Milo Milo P. P P can stand it l I I think youre you're perCe perfectly vulgar about that poor loor man mans Is money Diana attacked unexpectedly It was the heat and nervous ous r. r relief that George had bad actually returned unharmed unharmed un un- un- un harmed t l He Be was hot bot loo 00 oo What can you expect of u damn Yankee he be inquired sarcastically cully cally uncovering unco the roots of a running war- war warfare fare re that had started nearly twenty years ego when they were together at Miss Watkins Watkins' Wat- Wat kills kins' Select School for Young Children He lIe trudged off around the time house and she followed him As he wrestled ll with the keys kejs of the front door she fought an immense immense im im- mense e desire to stamp her ber foot and howl and Bud pu pull his hair and each wondered why the other had gol got so eo queer soil and irritable lately The entrance was prettily colonnaded and occupied the center of a large rounded bay baj The reason reason for the bay became ap apparent parent as soon as s they stepped through tb the front door into an immense hall ball perfectly perfect oval 01 in shape Dianas Diana's professional ey eye lre took puzzled note of its salient features features- each long-curved long wall divided into halves halve by a large fireplace on one hand a glazed closet on the other At the far jar end of th the theoval theoval oval a wide staircase rose to a generously windowed landing above which h it continued continue in two gracefully twining arms to th the rounded gallery on which the second floor rooms opened Diana stared and nd frowned and suddenly her hands came smartly together Why she exclaimed Why Why what Of Of course This is the house old oM Squire Squirt Hartridge built for his daughter in seventeen seventeen seventeen seven seven- teen ninety How idiotic of minot me mi not to recognize it at once with that famous ledge ledge- ledge x Youve been here before Never But nut of course I know about it Wasn't my own grandmother a Hartridge lIar lIar- another another bran branch h of the family Besides Besides Be Bl sides every Negro Negro- she said nigra as is all good Southerners do north north of ot Richmond knows this place Why Trench asked wondering a little I at her queer excitement She tried to shrug humorously but failed somewhat Because its it's a bad bad- luck bad uck house she said Oh ha hants he grinned Not exactly But nut things happen happen- Lots Lotsof Lotsof of people have died here Suddenly Ac Ac- cid And theres there's child never been a live ll born in the house You Yu must a admit d dOli m i t that's queer in a n ahouse house that's been bee n lived ived in on and off by half a dozen gen gen- 0 Our u l' l old nurse Calline used to say i 1 I thought t the h e y house had been empty emp for the last fifteen yC years just it i t Ever sins Cousin Dick Hartridge fell and windows out of one of the upstairs broke his neck and his wife saw him falland fall falland and ind went into convulsions and lost the baby died her he she ehe he was expecting and very nearly too because it lt self That was strange almost duplicated the first tragedy of the killed when Charles Egbert house I louse i mean himself in a fall faU on the stairs and his wife Squire Hartridge's Bartridge's daughter bore a dead child hild and died the next night But after the he Dick horror the family gave the he house up as a bad job and put it on the market No one around hered touch it Sweet of the family I must say say say- trying to slip the hoodoo over on the next fellow Any other casualties Trench asked absently preoccupied with odd realization realisation reali reali- nation that Diana with the lock of hair hanging untidily over her nose and a half half- defiant startled half-startled look in il her eyes lyes was wasa wasi a i thousand times prettier than in her most self possessed hours of trim perfection Lots of em Wouldn't waste em on a n hard boiled Yank like you though But Ill I'll U tell teU you one thing things Smarty Smarty Smarty-if if you JOU mean nean to get any work done on this place you'll have to get white labor from town his food inside the Not Sot a put g garden gate ate Spit cat he murmured absently Y Here Bere let me fix that hair for you She obediently handed him a tiny pocket I 0 r comb You haven't bavent called me that for years years and ind years she said half to herself and moved noved r restlessly under the gentle clumsiness of f his fingers There I he be said at last a trifle flushed Now ow bring on your spooks This is a wonderful opportunity for them Deserted house louse peach of a thunderstorm coming up- up The merest tremor soun sound 1 came came from the e blacked slacked horizon like those guns sometimes heard icard miles from the front in France Diana shivered Lets hury bury I 1 hate thunderstorms she muttered If were we're really going to dine at athe atthe atthe the he Lock Club we dont don't want to get drowned on the thet way t I By y Jove that's so Trench briskly y opened one of t the e four doors lea leading ing from the oval hall and found himself not in the thel adjoining l room as LIS he had supposed bu but t batting around blindly in what appeared to tobe tobe toe be e f tiny dark closet It was Diana who escue him pushing 1 him m bodily to the left eft a 11 second doorway faced the first it ot a a 1 slight light angle and some twelve e inches t tone toone to tone one ne side Aide of it Owing to the darkness of he the the closely shuttered d room Trench had hail taken for a a. closet what was really a kind o of vesti- vesti bile jule necessitated by the unequal thickness of jf the wall which separated a 11 curved hall from a rectangular living roomI roomI roomI room I should hould I have llave warned you ou she said penitently Why George gave his head such a n fearful ul bang on- on ono on n. n one of these very doors that the thc family always thought it was the reason for his going crazy crazy- crazy crooked till all of a 11 sudden Forged and aDel had ha 1 two wives at the same time and aud I dont don't know what all Some dome oine one ne crazy crooked cert certainly certainly built this house in the first place cs retch hats the idea of of these tuese doors anyway BUT she was not hearing him tho though gh lis- lis listening she certainly was She seemed to be straining her ears toward some sound too tenuous tenuous for fOl her companions companion's notice At last she turned to him biro her brows bro con con- Listen to the river she said putting up an arresting linger finger Do you hear haw it kind of giggles Not getting scared of the house are you jou he be grinned at her Ier meanly LIATE is a a monster of so deadly power that it lives HATE Jl long after the person wl wI w o gave it to the world has hasp p passed away and sometimes it seems to destroy itself it elf with one last outburst of malignancy which consumes it in the fires of oblivion S Her lIer shoulders snapped back in a 0 gest gesture re rehe he knew too well nell Scared Scared me me What's the matter with you rou Come on lets let's see see the rest of it They turned and aud stopped suddenly arrested arrested ar nS rested by their first glimpse of a a painted panel dark lark with age age above the fireplace Squire I himself Diana mur mur- Id Idl seen photographs of of- of of-of of of f it it- it but they didn't give you an au idea idea or They stood motionless for a moment before before be bl fore the the stern old portrait Nice thing to live with I must say Trench laughed shaking off an impression of sudden discomfort What did he stick his old mug up there for anyway lie Ill planned and built the house for his daughter l' l Malvina you know He had a fad for studied architecture architecture studied it in England in his his his' youth Diana answered lowering her voice unconsciously and standing close to Trench He looks looks angry angry the latter remarked thoughtfully unconsciously imitating the girls girl's lowered tone Poor thing thing thing-he he had a right to 1 she told him biro in ina a a conciliatory voice that seemed to be addressed l to the portrait SI She e was his Lis only child and mcl ran ran YI Y with Charles Egbert Eghert son of one of the thel Squires Squire's les n most most ost shiftless farmers He Be was ns furious furious They say jay he just shut himself op up lip in in his great greathouse great greaty house for over a year ear brooding o over er it it and hardly hardly- si speaking laking to a soul Then he decided decide apparently to forgive and forget Built Bl th this s place and gave av it t lo to Malvina Egbert Egbert- Egbert Egbert Is that the fellow who killed himself on those stairs stairs stairs' Yes They'd only lived here here a few months Ill bet the Squire was delighted l l lOh Oh no no ro ro Diana DiaDa ca caught him lahn up sharply and her side bide glance glanc at atthe the portrait was was' almost apologetic Malvina Egbert L Las as I told toM you OU died the next nest night and the Squire was all broken up Used tot tOl w wander wunder around louDel this empty house day and night and onus ono morning one morning one morning the servants saw his body out there caught on one of the boulders in the river 11 at t the b of the gorge They nt know er he stumbled stumbled bled off that narrow ledge or orAll or- or All the same Trench rench told her slowly I wouldn't Ih live e under the eyes of that thing for fOl a a. farm If you do the interior of this house Di make the Benders get ri rid of it t II He lie walked up to the pane 11 and nd tapped it sharply with his bis nails Oh painted square on the th woodwork I see see lIe He meant it to stay Well a curtain curtain- over it thick of enamel enamel enamel- then or ot a good coat What bat nonsense she cried gayly Why George Trench I believe e youre you're theone the theone theone one that's really scared scared scared-of of an old portrait Come on We e got all the rest of ot the house to see and an and 1 the storms storm's coming up fa fast t. t Race Hace you |
