- Very pleasant - but I'd
have you know I am as little superstitious as any of you - ha! ha! - and
as to anything like timidity - you may smile, gentlemen - but I trust
there is no one here means to insinuate that. - As to a room's being
haunted, I repeat, gentlemen - (growing a little warm at seeing a cursed
grin breaking out round me) - as to a room's being haunted, I have as
little faith in such silly stories as any one. But, since you put the
matter home to me, I will say that I have met with something in my room
strange and inexplicable to me - (a shout of laughter). Gentlemen, I am
serious - I know well what I am saying - I am calm, gentlemen, (striking
my flat upon the table) - by heaven I am calm. I am neither trifling,
nor do I wish to be trifled with - (the laughter of the company
suppressed with ludicrous attempts at gravity). There is a picture in
the room in which I was put last night, that has had an effect upon me
the most singular and incomprehensible.
"A picture!" said the old gentleman with the haunted head. "A picture!"
cried the narrator with the waggish nose. "A picture! a picture!"
echoed several voices. Here there was an ungovernable peal of laughter.
I could not contain myself. I started up from my seat - looked round on
the company with fiery indignation - thrust both my hands into my
pockets, and strode up to one of the windows, as though I would have
walked through it. I stopped short; looked out upon the landscape
without distinguishing a feature of it; and felt my gorge rising almost
to suffocation.
Mine host saw it was time to interfere. He had maintained an air of
Gravity through the whole of the scene, and now stepped forth as if to
shelter me from the overwhelming merriment of my companions.
"Gentlemen," said he, "I dislike to spoil sport, but you have had your
laugh, and the joke of the haunted chamber has been enjoyed. I must now
take the part of my guest. I must not only vindicate him from your
pleasantries, but I must reconcile him to himself, for I suspect he is
a little out of humor with his own feelings; and above all, I must
crave his pardon for having made him the subject of a kind of
experiment.
"Yes, gentlemen, there is something strange and peculiar in the chamber
to which our friend was shown last night. There is a picture which
possesses a singular and mysterious influence; and with which there is
connected a very curious story. It is a picture to which I attach a
value from a variety of circumstances; and though I have often been
tempted to destroy it from the odd and uncomfortable sensations it
produces in every one that beholds it; yet I have never been able to
prevail upon myself to make the sacrifice. It is a picture I never like
to look upon myself; and which is held in awe by all my servants. I
have, therefore, banished it to a room but rarely used; and should have
had it covered last night, had not the nature of our conversation, and
the whimsical talk about a haunted chamber tempted me to let it remain,
by way of experiment, whether a stranger, totally unacquainted with its
story, would be affected by it."
The words of the Baronet had turned every thought into a different
channel: all were anxious to hear the story of the mysterious picture;
and for myself, so strongly were my feelings interested, that I forgot
to feel piqued at the experiment which my host had made upon my nerves,
and joined eagerly in the general entreaty.
As the morning was stormy, and precluded all egress, my host was glad
of any means of entertaining his company; so drawing his arm-chair
beside the fire, he began -
THE ADVENTURE OF THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER.
Many years since, when I was a young man, and had just left Oxford, I
was sent on the grand tour to finish my education. I believe my parents
had tried in vain to inoculate me with wisdom; so they sent me to
mingle with society, in hopes I might take it the natural way. Such, at
least, appears to be the reason for which nine-tenths of our youngsters
are sent abroad.
In the course of my tour I remained some time at Venice. The romantic
character of the place delighted me; I was very much amused by the air
of adventure and intrigue that prevailed in this region of masks and
gondolas; and I was exceedingly smitten by a pair of languishing black
eyes, that played upon my heart from under an Italian mantle. So I
persuaded myself that I was lingering at Venice to study men and
manners. At least I persuaded my friends so, and that answered all my
purpose. Indeed, I was a little prone to be struck by peculiarities in
character and conduct, and my imagination was so full of romantic
associations with Italy, that I was always on the lookout for
adventure.
Every thing chimed in with such a humor in this old mermaid of a city.
My suite of apartments were in a proud, melancholy palace on the grand
canal, formerly the residence of a Magnifico, and sumptuous with the
traces of decayed grandeur. My gondolier was one of the shrewdest of
his class, active, merry, intelligent, and, like his brethren, secret
as the grave; that is to say, secret to all the world except his
master. I had not had him a week before he put me behind all the
curtains in Venice. I liked the silence and mystery of the place, and
when I sometimes saw from my window a black gondola gliding
mysteriously along in the dusk of the evening, with nothing visible but
its little glimmering lantern, I would jump into my own zenduletto, and
give a signal for pursuit.
