The Dead Letter. Metta Victoria Fuller Victor

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      Published by Good Press, 2021

       [email protected]

      EAN 4064066249311

Table of Contents

       PART I.

       CHAPTER I. THE LETTER.

       CHAPTER II. EVENTS OF A NIGHT.

       CHAPTER III. THE FIGURE BENEATH THE TREES.

       CHAPTER IV. MORELAND VILLA.

       CHAPTER V. MR. BURTON, THE DETECTIVE.

       CHAPTER VI. TWO LINKS IN THE CHAIN.

       CHAPTER VII. ELEANOR.

       CHAPTER VIII. THE HAUNTED GRAVE.

       CHAPTER IX. THE SPIDER AND THE FLY.

       CHAPTER X. THE ANNIVERSARY.

       CHAPTER XI. THE LITTLE GUEST AND THE APPARITION.

       CHAPTER XII. THE NIGHT IN MORELAND VILLA.

       CHAPTER XIII. THE SHADOW ASSUMES SHAPE.

       PART II.

       CHAPTER I. THE LETTER.

       CHAPTER II. OUR VISITS.

       CHAPTER III. THE CONFESSION.

       CHAPTER IV. EMBARKED FOR CALIFORNIA.

       CHAPTER V. ON THE TRAIL.

       CHAPTER VI. AT LAST—AT LAST.

       CHAPTER VII. NOW FOR HOME AGAIN.

       CHAPTER VIII. THE RIPE HOUR.

       CHAPTER IX. JOINING THE MISSING LINKS.

       CHAPTER X. THE NEW LIFE.

PART I.

       Table of Contents

CHAPTER I.

       THE LETTER.

       Table of Contents

      I paused suddenly in my work. Over a year’s experience in the Dead Letter office had given a mechanical rapidity to my movements in opening, noting and classifying the contents of the bundles before me; and, so far from there being any thing exciting to the curiosity, or interesting to the mind, in the employment, it was of the most monotonous character.

      Young ladies whose love letters have gone astray, evil men whose plans have been confided in writing to their confederates, may feel but little apprehension of the prying eyes of the Department; nothing attracts it but objects of material value—sentiment is below par; it gives attention only to such tangible interests as are represented by bank-bills, gold-pieces, checks, jewelry, miniatures, et cetera. Occasionally a grave clerk smiles sardonically at the ridiculous character of some of the articles which come to light; sometimes, perhaps, looks thoughtfully at a withered rosebud, or bunch of pressed violets, a homely little pin-cushion, or a book-mark, wishing it had reached its proper destination. I can not answer for other employees, who may not have even this amount of heart and imagination to invest in the dull business of a Government office; but when I was in the Department I was guilty, at intervals, of such folly—yet I passed for the coldest, most cynical man of them all.

      The letter which I held in my paralyzed fingers when they so abruptly ceased their dexterous movements, was contained in a closely-sealed envelope, yellowed by time, and directed in a peculiar hand to “John Owen, Peekskill, New York,” and the date on the stamp was “October 18th, 1857”—making the letter two years old. I know not what magnetism passed from it, putting me, as the spiritualists say, en rapport with it; I had not yet cut the lappet; and the only thing I could fix upon as the cause of my attraction was, that at the date indicated on the envelope, I had been a resident of Blankville, twenty miles from Peekskill—and something about that date!

      Yet this was no excuse for my agitation; I was not of an inquisitive disposition; nor did “John Owen” belong to the circle of my acquaintance. I sat there with such a strange expression upon my face, that one of my fellows, remarking my mood, exclaimed jestingly:

      “What is it, Redfield? A check for a hundred thousand?”

      “I am sure I don’t know; I haven’t opened it,” I answered, at random; and with this I cut the wrapper, impelled by some strongly-defined, irresistible influence to read the time-stained sheet inclosed. It ran in this wise:

      “Dear Sir—It’s too bad to disappoint you. Could not execute your order, as everybody concerned СКАЧАТЬ