The House in the Mist
3.5/5
()
Anna Katharine Green
Anna Katharine Green (1846–1935) was an American writer and one of the first authors of detective fiction in the United States. Her book The Leavenworth Case, published in 1878, became a wildly successful bestseller. Green went on to write dozens of mysteries and detective novels. She died in Buffalo, New York.
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Reviews for The House in the Mist
12 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A man stumbles across a house in the mist. To realise that it is only the heirs of Anthony Westonhaugh can stay to hear the reading of the will in the room, and only if they have arrived on time.
An interesting little story - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A collection of three short stories: The House in the Mist, The Ruby and the Cauldron, and The Hermit of — Street; book-length merely by virtue of the thickness of 1913 rag paper. Green is best known for her detective stories, but two of these are more explorations and resolutions of mysterious situations, and the story that does feature a detective treats the resolution of the case (by someone else) almost as an afterthought.Not her strongest work — I think she works more effectively in novel length — but distinctly Green.
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The House in the Mist - Anna Katharine Green
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Title: The House in the Mist
Author: Anna Katharine Green
Release Date: January 19, 2011 [EBook #35003]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE IN THE MIST ***
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The Pocket Books
A series designed to represent the three aspects of American romance,—adventure, mystery and humor
The Amethyst Box By Anna Katharine Green
A detective story of a Newport wedding
The House in the Mist By Anna Katharine Green
A tale of unexpected fortunes. Including also The Ruby and the Caldron
Enchantment By Harold MacGrath
Short stories of whimsical adventure
The Princess Elopes By Harold MacGrath
An extravagant romance of a European Duchy
The Motormaniacs By Lloyd Osbourne
Tales of the road and the automobile
THE
HOUSE IN THE MIST
By
ANNA KATHARINE GREEN
Author of
The Millionaire Baby
The Amethyst Box
The Filigree Ball, etc., etc.
INDIANAPOLIS
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright 1905
The Bobbs-Merrill Company
CONTENTS
THE HOUSE IN THE MIST
THE RUBY AND THE CALDRON
THE HOUSE IN THE MIST
I
AN OPEN DOOR
It was a night to drive any man indoors. Not only was the darkness impenetrable, but the raw mist enveloping hill and valley made the open road anything but desirable to a belated wayfarer like myself.
Being young, untrammeled, and naturally indifferent to danger, I was not averse to adventure; and having my fortune to make, was always on the look-out for El Dorado, which, to ardent souls, lies ever beyond the next turning. Consequently, when I saw a light shimmering through the mist at my right, I resolved to make for it and the shelter it so opportunely offered.
But I did not realize then, as I do now, that shelter does not necessarily imply refuge, or I might not have undertaken this adventure with so light a heart. Yet, who knows? The impulses of an unfettered spirit lean toward daring, and youth, as I have said, seeks the strange, the unknown and, sometimes, the terrible.
My path toward this light was by no means an easy one. After confused wanderings through tangled hedges, and a struggle with obstacles of whose nature I received the most curious impression in the surrounding murk, I arrived in front of a long, low building which, to my astonishment, I found standing with doors and windows open to the pervading mist, save for one square casement through which the light shone from a row of candles placed on a long mahogany table.
The quiet and seeming emptiness of this odd and picturesque building made me pause. I am not much affected by visible danger, but this silent room, with its air of sinister expectancy, struck me most unpleasantly, and I was about to reconsider my first impulse and withdraw again to the road, when a second look, thrown back upon the comfortable interior I was leaving, convinced me of my folly and sent me straight toward the door which stood so invitingly open.
But half-way up the path, my progress was again stayed by the sight of a man issuing from the house I had so rashly looked upon as devoid of all human presence. He seemed in haste and, at the moment my eye first fell on him, was engaged in replacing his watch in his pocket.
But he did not shut the door behind him, which I thought odd, especially as his final glance had been a backward one, and seemed to take in all the appointments of the place he was so hurriedly leaving.
As we met, he raised his hat. This likewise struck me as peculiar, for the deference he displayed was more marked than that usually bestowed on strangers, while his lack of surprise at an encounter more or less startling in such a mist was calculated to puzzle an ordinary man like myself. Indeed, he was so little impressed by my presence there that he was for passing me without a word or any other hint of good fellowship, save the bow of which I have spoken. But this did not suit me. I was hungry, cold, and eager for creature comforts, and the house before me gave forth not only heat, but a savory odor which in itself was an invitation hard to ignore. I therefore accosted the man.
Will bed and supper be provided me here?
I asked. I am tired out with a long tramp over the hills, and hungry enough to pay anything in reason—
I stopped, for the man had disappeared. He had not paused at my appeal and the mist had swallowed him. But at the break in my sentence, his voice came back in good-natured tones and I heard:
Supper will be ready at nine, and there are beds for all. Enter, sir; you are the first to arrive, but the others can not be far behind.
A queer greeting, certainly. But when I strove to question him as to its meaning, his voice returned to me from such a distance that I doubted if my words had reached him with any more distinctness than his answer reached me.
Well!
thought I, it isn't as if a lodging had been denied me. He invited me to enter, and enter I will.
The house, to which I now naturally directed a glance of much more careful scrutiny than before, was no ordinary farm-building, but a rambling old mansion, made conspicuously larger here and there by jutting porches and more than one convenient lean-to. Though furnished, warmed and lighted with candles, as I have previously described, it had about it an air of disuse which made me feel myself an intruder, in spite of the welcome I had received. But I was not in a position to stand upon ceremony, and ere long I found myself inside the great room and before the blazing logs whose glow had lighted up the doorway and added its own attraction to the other allurements of the inviting place.
Though the open door made a draft which was anything but pleasant, I did not feel like closing it, and was astonished to observe the effect of the mist through the square thus left open to the night. It was not an agreeable one, and, instinctively turning my back upon that quarter of the room, I let my eyes roam over the wainscoted walls and the odd pieces of furniture which gave such an air of old-fashioned richness to the place. As nothing of the kind had ever fallen under my eyes before, I should have thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity of gratifying my taste for the curious and the beautiful, if the quaint old chairs I saw standing about me on every side had not all been empty. But the solitude of the place, so much more oppressive than the solitude of the road I had left, struck cold to my heart, and I missed the cheer rightfully belonging to such attractive surroundings. Suddenly I bethought me of the many other apartments likely to be found in so spacious a dwelling, and going to the nearest door, I opened it and called out for the master of the house. But only an echo came back, and, returning to the fire, I sat down before the cheering blaze, in quiet acceptance of a situation too lonely for comfort, yet not without a certain piquant interest for a man of free mind and adventurous disposition like myself.
After all, if supper was to be served at nine, someone must be expected to eat it: I should surely not be left much longer without companions.
Meanwhile ample amusement awaited me in the contemplation of a picture which, next to the large fireplace, was the most prominent object in the room. This picture was a portrait, and a remarkable one. The countenance it portrayed was both characteristic and forcible, and so interested me that in studying it I quite forgot both hunger and weariness.