The Old Stone House and Other StoriesGreen, Anna Katharine
General
The Old Stone House and Other Stories
Green, Anna Katharine
Detective and mystery stories, American
The sight which I thought worth recording was this: I had come slowly
through the yard, for the sunshine was brilliant and the month June,
and sad as the spot is, it is strangely beautiful to one who loves
nature, when as I approached the corner where Juliet lies, and which
you will remember was in the very spot where I once heard her take her
reluctant oath, I saw crouched against her tomb a figure which seemed
both strange and vaguely familiar to me. Not being able to guess who
it was, as there is now nobody in town who remembers her with any more
devotion than myself, I advanced with sudden briskness, when the
person I was gazing upon rose, and turning towards me, looked with
deeply searching and most certainly very wretched eyes into mine. I
felt a shock, first of surprise, and then of wildest recollection. The
man before me was the Colonel, and the grief apparent in his face and
disordered mien showed that years of absence had not done their work,
and that he had never forgotten the arch and brilliant Juliet.
Bowing humbly and with a most reverent obeisance, for he was still the
great man of the county, though he had not been in our town for years,
I asked his pardon for my intrusion, and then drew back to let him
pass. But he stopped and gave me a keen look, and speaking my name,
said: "You are married, are you not?" And when I bowed the meek
acquiescence which the subject seemed to demand, he sighed as I
thought somewhat bitterly, and shrugging his shoulders, went
thoughtfully by and left me standing on the green sward alone. But
when he had reached the gate he turned again, and without raising his
voice, though the distance between us was considerable, remarked: "I
have come back to spend my remaining days in the village of my birth.
If you care to talk of old times, come to the house at sunset. You
will find me sitting on the porch."
Gratified more than I ever expected to be by a word from him, I bowed
my thanks and promised most heartily to come. And that was the end of
our first interview.
It has left me with very lively sensations. Will they be increased or
diminished by the talk he has promised me?
* * * * *
I had a pleasant hour with the Colonel, but we did not talk of _her_.
Had I expected to? I judge so by the faint but positive disappointment
which I feel.
* * * * *
I have been again to the Colonel's, but this time I did not find him
in. "He is much out evenings," explained the woman who keeps house
for him, "and you will have to come early to see him at his own
hearth."
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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