The Project Gutenberg EBook of The House in the Mist, by Anna Katharine Green

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Title: The House in the Mist

Author: Anna Katharine Green

Release Date: August 30, 2006 [EBook #19147]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE
HOUSE IN THE MIST

_By_

ANNA KATHARINE GREEN

Author of
The Millionaire Baby
The Amethyst Box
The Filigree Ball, etc., etc.

NEW YORK
THE NEW YORK BOOK CO.
1913

COPYRIGHT 1905
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY

* * * * *

APRIL

THE HOUSE IN THE MIST

I

AN OPEN DOOR

It was a night to drive any man indoors. Not only was the darkness
impenetrable, but the raw mist enveloping hill and valley made the open
road anything but desirable to a belated wayfarer like myself.

Being young, untrammeled, and naturally indifferent to danger, I was not
averse to adventure; and having my fortune to make, was always on the
lookout for El Dorado, which, to ardent souls, lies ever beyond the next
turning. Consequently, when I saw a light shimmering through the mist at
my right, I resolved to make for it and the shelter it so opportunely
offered.

But I did not realize then, as I do now, that shelter does not necessarily
imply refuge, or I might not have undertaken this adventure with so light
a heart. Yet, who knows? The impulses of an unfettered spirit lean toward
daring, and youth, as I have said, seeks the strange, the unknown and,
sometimes, the terrible.

My path toward this light was by no means an easy one. After confused
wanderings through tangled hedges, and a struggle with obstacles of
whose nature I received the most curious impression in the surrounding
murk, I arrived in front of a long, low building which, to my
astonishment, I found standing with doors and windows open to the
pervading mist, save for one square casement through which the light
shone from a row of candles placed on a long mahogany table.

The quiet and seeming emptiness of this odd and picturesque building
made me paus