The Filigree Ball: Being a full and true account of the solution of the mystery concerning the Jeffrey-Moore affairGreen, Anna Katharine
General
The Filigree Ball: Being a full and true account of the solution of the mystery concerning the Jeffrey-Moore affair
Green, Anna Katharine
Detective and mystery stories
“Being anxious to take home with me some sketches of the exquisite
ornamentation in the Rosslyn chapel about which I wrote you so
enthusiastically the other day, I took advantage of Edward’s absence
this morning to visit the place again and this time alone. The sky was
clear and the air balmy, and as I approached the spot from the near-by
station I was not surprised to see another woman straying quietly about
the exterior of the chapel gazing at walls which, interesting as they
are, are but a rough shell hiding the incomparable beauties within. I
noticed this lady; I could not help it. She was one to attract any eye.
Seldom have I seen such grace, such beauty, and both infused by such
melancholy. Her sadness added wonderfully to her charm, and I found it
hard enough to pass her with the single glance allowable to a stranger,
especially as she gave evidence of being one of my own countrywomen:
“However, I saw no alternative, and once within the charmed edifice,
forgot everything in the congenial task I had set for myself. For some
reason the chapel was deserted at this moment by all but me. As the
special scroll-work I wanted was in a crypt down a short flight of
steps at the right of the altar, I was completely hidden from view to
any one entering above and was enjoying both my seclusion and the
opportunity it gave me of carrying out my purpose unwatched when I
heard a light step above and realized that the exquisite beauty which
had so awakened my admiration had at last found its perfect setting.
Such a face amid such exquisite surroundings was a rare sight, and
interested as I always am in artistic effects I was about to pocket
pencil and pad and make my way up to where she moved among the carved
pillars when I heard a soft sigh above and caught the rustle of her
dress as she sat down upon a bench at the head of the steps near which
I stood. Somehow that sigh deterred me. I hesitated to break in upon a
melancholy so invincible that even the sight of all this loveliness
could not charm it away, and in that moment of hesitation something
occurred above which fixed me to my place in irrepressible curiosity.
“Another step had entered the open door of the chapel—a man’s
step—eager and with a purpose in it eloquent of something deeper than a
mere tourist’s interest in this loveliest of interiors. The cry which
escaped her lips, the tone in which he breathed her name in his hurried
advance, convinced me that this was a meeting of two lovers after a
long heart-break and that I should mar the supreme moment of their
lives by intruding into it the unwelcome presence of a stranger. So I
lingered where I was and thus heard what passed between them at this
moment of all moments ire their lives.
“It was she who spoke first.
“‘Francis, you have come! You have sought me!’
“To which he replied in choked accents which yet could not conceal the
inexpressible elation of his heart:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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