Page:The Mystery of Madeline Le Blanc (1900).djvu/32

32 knew who he was; but it was generally believed that the old house was a worthless something which had been left either for posterity or time to demolish. It was a dark, low, squatty structure that looked at the cemetery across the way through three small front windows, one above and two below, shaded by large eaves that time had curled and twisted out of shape. The doors were low, broad, and looked dark and heavy like iron. To the front and sides of the house clung coarse vines bearing scrofulous looking leaves that gave it an even more sinister appearance. What little wood there was had been gnawed and rotted by rain and sunshine; and the roof which once had been steep and proud lay bentand leaning. The shutters opened and closed as it pleased the wind; and the silence of the isolation was never broken save by the flutter of birds and the whining of an occasional stray dog that sheltered there.

The section of the town in which this house was situated had fallen into degeneration, and was only frequented by occasional funeral processions and mourners. who visited the graves of the departed.