, scattering the
embers and filling the house with banshee calls. I simply kissed
her and advised her to go back with me to England and forget this
old house and all its miserable memories. For that was the sum of
the comfort at my poor command. When, after another restless night,
I crept down in the early morning to peer into the dim and unused
room whose story I had at last learned, I can not say but that I
half expected to behold the meager ghost of the unfortunate general
rise from the cushions of the prodigious bench which still kept its
mysterious watch over the deserted hearthstone."

So much for the passages culled from the book itself. The newspaper
excerpts, to which I next turned, bore a much later date, and read
as follows:

"A strange coincidence marks the death of Albert Moore in his
brother's house yesterday. He was discovered lying with his head
on the identical spot where General Lloyd fell forty years before.
It is said that this sudden demise of a man hitherto regarded as a
model of physical strength and endurance was preceded by a violent
altercation with his elder brother. If this is so, the excitement
incident upon such a break in their usually pleasant relations may
account for his sudden death. Edward Moore, who, unfortunately,
was out of the room when his brother succumbed--some say that he
was in his grandfather's room above--was greatly unnerved by this
unexpected end to what was probably merely a temporary quarrel,
and now lies in a critical condition.

"The relations between him and the deceased Albert have always been
of the most amicable character until they unfortunately fell in
love with the same woman."

Attached to this was another slip, apparently from a later paper.

"The quarrel between the two brothers Moore, just prior to the
younger one's death, turns out to have been of a more serious nature
than was first supposed. It has since leaked out that an actual
duel was fought at that time between these two on the floor of the
old library; and that in this duel the elder one was wounded. Some
even go so far as to affirm that the lady's hand was to be the
reward of him who drew the first blood; it is no longer denied that
the room was in great disorder when the servants first rushed in at
the sound he made in falling. Everything movable had been pushed
back against the wall and an open space cleared, in the center of
which could be seen one drop of blood. What is certa