Knots Untied; Or, Ways and By-ways in the Hidden Life of American DetectivesMcWatters, George S.
General
Knots Untied; Or, Ways and By-ways in the Hidden Life of American Detectives
McWatters, George S.
Detectives
GOSHEN, CONN.--A LADY STRANGER THERE--A PILGRIMAGE TO GOSHEN, VIA
THE FAR-FAMED MOUNTAIN TOWN OF LITCHFIELD--THE BEAUTIFUL
WIDOW--AN UNPLEASANT REMINISCENCE OF DR. IVES, LATE BISHOP OF
NORTH CAROLINA--MORE ABOUT THE WIDOW--SHE LEAVES FOR NEW
YORK--AT THE "MANSION HOUSE," LITCHFIELD--A MARKED CHARACTER
ENCOUNTERED THERE--MR. "C. B. LE ROY" STUDIED AND WEIGHED--THE
BEAUTIFUL WIDOW AND LE ROY MEET--HER FACE DISCLOSES CONFLICTING
EMOTIONS--MR. LE ROY AND THE BEAUTIFUL WIDOW, MRS. STEVENS,
TAKE A WALK DOWN SOUTH STREET, IN THE "PARADISE OF
LOAFERS"--SYMPATHIES SILENTLY EXCHANGED--WE ALL START FOR THE
"STATION"--THE STAGE-COACH "TURNS OVER"--THE AFFRIGHTED LE ROY
REVEALS HIS MANNERS--A PECULIAR SCENE IN THE CARS--AT
BRIDGEPORT I PRESENT MYSELF TO MRS. STEVENS--AT NEW YORK
AGAIN--A TALE OF COMPLICATIONS--MRS. STEVENS IN DEEP TROUBLE--A
FRIEND OF HERS SEEKS ME--REVELATIONS--A FEARFUL STORY--A SECRET
MARRIAGE AND UNHAPPY CONSEQUENCES--THE WRETCH LE ROY WANTS THE
WIDOW'S MONEY--A TRAP SET FOR LE ROY--HE FALLS INTO IT--THE
WEDDING SCENE DISARRANGED--THE WIDOW SAVED, AND THE INTENDED
FORCED MARRIAGE DEFEATED.
In the summer of 185-, I had occasion to visit my brother, who was a
clerk in a wholesale grocery store of one Lyman, on Water Street, I
think, and who, being consumptively inclined, had, at Mr. Lyman's
suggestion, and through his kindness, gone to the town of Goshen,
Litchfield County, Connecticut, to spend a few weeks in the genial
family of Mr. Lyman's father, and taste the bracing air of the hills of
Litchfield County, so far-famed. So delighted was my brother with his
"country home," as he called it, that he wrote me as often as once a
week, and sometimes twice, varying his letters, in the enthusiasm with
which they were filled over the mountain scenery, the fresh air, the
excellent hunting, the rides and drives, with now and then a word about
a beautiful, mysterious lady, supposed to be from New York, and by some
supposed to be a widow,--a gentle, sweet, good woman,--who bore some
grief or other in her soul, as was evident, he said, but who, with
excellent good sense, kept her affairs to herself, and would not
obligingly recite the history of her life to the gossiping villagers of
that country town, who, like those of all other towns away from the
centres of business, and not even on the line of any great
thoroughfare, "must have something to busy themselves about," and
therefore mind each other's business considerably.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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