390
THE WEST SHORE.
it does not do to give way to nil her fancies you see, Sig
Uolo. lit! Coooo," he cried, iwt if struck by a sudden
thought. "Cocco, come with me and hold the lamp;
that big door takes two hands to open it."
Cecoo loaning against the doorpost a dark silhouette
against the light within the cottage laughed mockingly,
and ojaculntod "Gruzi'e!" an Italian's more refined
method of saying, " I'll bo hanged if I do!"
Cecco's elder brother was not so obdurate; he was a
Bolomn-lookuig fellow with largo eyes, and a mouth which
formed n horizontal line across his face, and which shut
up with a peculiarly tight expression. Pietro roso,.soy
ing, " 1W Ucmpo! wo won't let hi in ?o alone. I'll raima
Ueppe." And ho wont out into tho darkness, overtaking
iiio jungiisiiniaii ana his brotlior just as they reached an
old gabled gateway, nlxiut twenty yards up tho rough
stony lano.
lioppo opened this, and they stumbled down some
ruuo slops into a courtyard, where a sound of dropping
waier cimio through all tho roaring wind, scrambled in
tho darkness over wet grass and pebbles, fell across a big
Btono table in tho midst, and finally reached an old black
oak doorway.
" Hero, Pietro, you oiion this." said Iinnnn hnn,,
tho key to his brother, and tho lamp and sheets to the
iravoior, men winlo rietro struggled with the rusty lock
ho softly turned into tho gloom and rim nwnv
Piotro's expression "as ho found himself left nlono
with tho stranger on tho black threshold of the old villa
was a Httuly. lerror and superstition struggled with in
digimtion and aiiL-er, while the discomfits! f.mi;.,
being a dupo predominated over all. Ho run wildly out
10 mo couriyarii to call ins brother, but tho traveler, not
wishing to In left nlono outside his inhospitable shelter
detained liita, saying, "What does it matter? you know
tho way as well as ho does, I supjioso," and so brought in
tho unwilling guide, who having ejaculated, "God save
us," and crossed himself, let shrugs of tho shoulder mid
lifting up of the eyes do tho rest of tho duty in express
ing his overpowering feelings. Ho led the way into a
largo old room, with quaint oak furniture and faded jxir
traiU of tho ciniiw-crnlo stylo on the walls. "Il'm"
thought the Englishman, "this looks like civilization at
least, if not comfort. Are these family portraits?" he
atikod.
"Hi. Signoro Inglese-yoH, I will tell you of them to
morrow. Hero is the Mroo.ii, sir. I , sorry wo have
no comfort- for you." He spoko in a hurried, gaspini;
sort of voice, and hastily setting down the lamp, ho com
inonoed fussily to spread the coarse sheet ho had brouuht
from his mother's cottage. As he did so his eyo fell on
it chair placed carelessly i tho middle of the room, as if
it had Imsmi lately used.
" hat are you staring at?" U1 Arlhur M .
" Oil. notion" iiir null. in.. " : i . i J
' ""m ,,,,,, "'( "is mouth till it Wmne a
long lino dividing his face. Ho threw the coverlid nil
awry, and asked if the Signoro wanted nnvthimr else
but, quite forgetting to wait a reply, hi, h.;.y "llHj.py
night!" vanished into the darkness, slamming the heavy
oak door with a reverberating clang.
Mr. MoBtyn, who had severul questions on his tongue
stood open-mouthed, gazing into space. As Pietro had
done when left by his brother, so our hero did on being
deserted in his turn, shrugged his shoulders, and ejacu
luted "Humph!" His English sangue freddo, ns the
Italians call it, stood him in good stead, and for want of
an interlocutor he talked to himself.- " This is queers
let us say unusual. "With great difficulty I obtain refuge
in a house large enough to shelter an army, but nobody
is willing to accord it. An ancient crone mutters warn-'
ings, a boy threatens evils, two men refuse to enter, and
a third is struck dumb at the sight of an empty chair and
Hies! It seems a quiet old house enough. Lot us look
round my room."
Holding aloft the lamp, he saw that the huge bod
stead had antique yellow hancincrs and frinmw ti,t. i.
t - u o - mu
chairs were high-backed and of carved ook, an autiaue
I. .11.. i l ..... ii i i 1 , . .
jti ( in tiii hwk)(i neartne beu, ana on the sides of the room
woro two huge oak chests, some ten feet long, which
served as divans, but without cushions. These chests
had feet like lions' claws, and curious old iron hnsps.
fn the olden days every Italian familv niaaBaM a.i..h
chests, and fillod them with the hereditary store of linens
and brocades. Every bride had one to hold her covrvdo.
The Englishman put down the lamp. "Nothing very
alarming on the outsido. I must confess, unless Mm ukl.
oton lives in that musty cupboard in the wall, or the
ghost is shut up in ono of those chests: tiorlmns f.lio rrlm.it
of Griselda is there," and, half laughing, he opened the
one on iuo lott The honvy lid lifted slowly. As he
opened it ho fancied ho hoard a sigh or some sound, but
on holding tho lamp lower to see well inside there was
nolhhuj. ''Black emptiness no more," said Arthur
Mortyn, "just what wns to bo expectedso I will wnste
no more nine.
He left the lllllin btirililifT in pnau nt nno1fr.r if.
Unshod across his mind that he had no matches with him.
In Spite of tllO discomfort of A hfirl mnrln hv tlin liniirla nt
a frightened man, instead of a "neat-handed Phyllis,"
ho was bo tired that sloop soon came to him, or would
have come, only that just as he was passing into oblivion
a voice seemed to sav. in trmvl T.mnn
shall I do?"
Starting u wideawnW bo
Dead silence replied, or ratlmr li,l nf. W l..ted
round tho room, even shoolc nut. tl.a nnrtninu nt lii
side, nnd then returned to aWn nrrnin anvinn rfnRMIir-
j"Kly, "A dream-nothing more." Sleep tarried longer, .
but at last it npproachod again; Arthur Mostyn's regular
breathing announced the fact And now otlior sounds
x-cume nmimio. The lamp spluttered and flickered, cast
wonderful shadows and fitful lights as the shades of dark
ness gathered about it-a hard breath, a half sigh, came
from somewhere m,l fmm tlm .ln i i.A v.ll..w-
curtained bed. The chest on the right side creoked and
lenod slowly; something like the white face of a terri
tMM girl peeped out. The sleeper turned uneasily. The