"
To which I made no reply. The evil, if evil it were, was done. I had
fallen in love with Miss Blake's niece ere those words of wisdom dropped
from my employer's lips.
8. MY FIRST NIGHT AT RIVER HALL
It was with a feeling of depression for which I could in no way account
that, one cold evening, towards the end of February, I left Buckingham
Street and wended my way to the Uninhabited House. I had been eager to
engage in the enterprise; first, for the sake of the fifty pounds
reward; and secondly, and much more, for the sake of Helena Elmsdale. I
had tormented Mr. Craven until he gave a reluctant consent to my desire.
I had brooded over the matter until I became eager to commence my
investigations, as a young soldier may be to face the enemy; and yet,
when the evening came, and darkness with it; when I set my back to the
more crowded thoroughfares, and found myself plodding along a lonely
suburban road, with a keen wind lashing my face, and a suspicion of rain
at intervals wetting my cheeks, I confess I had no feeling of enjoyment
in my self-imposed task.
After all, talking about a haunted house in broad daylight to one's
fellow-clerks, in a large London office, is a very different thing from
taking up one's residence in the same house, all alone, on a bleak
winter's night, with never a soul within shouting distance.
Pages:
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120