Page:The Mystery of Madeline Le Blanc (1900).djvu/7

Rh been accounted beautiful. One eye—the left—was blue and the other black in such shades as to make one instinctively turn away when both looked into one's face. It soon became evident to my friend that a certain mysterious seclusion hovered about these two women and their odd and ancient abode. They never had any sort of intercourse with anybody; and when he had become attracted by the seclusion of the house in which they lived and had inquired if he might lodge there for a few months, the first question asked was, "Do you live in the town?" Assured that he was an utter stranger, they welcomed him, and did everything in their power to make him feel at home.

He had resided in the house but a short time when he noticed that he had become an object of public curiosity. He never ventured on the street but that the staring eyes of the townspeople were directed upon him; and more than once he noticed persons who passed him turn and look. It was a curiosity that had no humor in it, but more of awe, as if he held the key to an enigma that was or once had been of no small concern. One Sunday morn-