The Ghost of Guir House

There are few men who would not have felt uncomfortable in the

peculiar situation in which Mr. Henley now found himself, although,

perhaps, he was as little affected as any one would have been under

the circumstances. It was impossible now to retreat from the part

assumed, and he resolved to carry it out to the best of his ability,

never doubting for an instant that the deception would be discovered

sooner or later.

Following Miss Guir across the threshold of her mysterious home,

Henley entered a hall which was by far the most extraordinary he had

ever beheld, and he paused for a moment to take in the scene. The

room was nearly square, with a singular staircase ascending from the

left. Upon the side opposite the door was a huge chimney, where a

fire of logs was burning in an enormous rough stone fireplace, doubly

cheering after their long drive through the cool October evening. A

brass lamp of antique design, with perforated shade of the same

material, was suspended from the ceiling, and helped illumine this

strange apartment. From each end of the mantelpiece an immense

high-backed sofa projected into the room, cushioned and padded, and

looking as if built into its present position with the house. The

walls were covered with odd portraits, whose frames were crumbling in

decay, and the window curtains adorned with fairy scenes and

mythological figures. The ceiling was crossed with heavy beams of

oak, black with the smoke of a century; and the stairway upon the

left was also black, but ornamented with a series of rough panels,

upon each of which was painted a human face, giving it a somewhat

fantastic appearance. Paul could not help glancing above, toward the

mysterious regions with which this eccentric stairway communicated.

An antique sofa, studded with brass nails, exhibited upon its

towering back a picture of Tsong Kapa reclining under the tree of a

thousand images at the Llamasary of Koomboom. There were scenes which

were evidently intended to be historical, but there were others which

were wild and inexplicable. The quaintness of the room was

intensified by the flickering fire and the shafts of yellow light

emitted through the perforations of the lamp.

A faint aromatic odor hung upon the air, possibly due to a pile of

balsam logs in a corner near the chimney. Over all was the

unmistakable evidence of age, and of a nature at once barbaric,

eccentric, and artistic. Who had conceived and executed this

extraordinary apartment? And what were the people like who called the

place their home? Paul stood aghast and wondered as he inwardly

propounded these questions.