Read The Boarded-Up House for Free Online Page B

up so it wouldn’t be discovered. I’ve lain awake nights thinking of it. And I’d just as lief not get into that room, if it’s so!”
    Joyce broke into a peal of laughter. “Oh, Cynthia! If that isn’t exactly like you! Who but you would have thought of such a thing!”
    â€œI don’t see anything queer about it,” retorted Cynthia. “Doesn’t everything point that way?”
    â€œCertainly not, Cynthia Sprague! Do you suppose that even years and years ago any one in a big house like this could commit a murder, and then calmly lock up and walk away, and the matter never be investigated? That’s absurd! The murdered person would be missed and people would wonder why the place was left like this, and the—the authorities would get in here in a hurry. No, there wasn’t any murder or anything bloodthirsty at all; something very different.”
    â€œWell, since you don’t like my theory,” replied Cynthia, still nettled, “what’s yours? Of course you have one!”
    â€œYes, I have one, and I have lain awake nights, too, thinking it out. I’ll tell you what it is, and if you don’t agree with me, you’re free to say so. Here’s the way it all seems tome:
    â€œWhatever happened in that house must have concerned two persons, at least. And one of them, you must admit, was our Lovely Lady whose portrait hangs in the library. Her room and clothes and locket show that. She looks very young, but she must have been some one of importance in the house, probably the mistress, or she would n’t have occupied the biggest bedroom and had her picture on the wall. You think that much is all right, don’t you?” Cynthia nodded.
    â€œThen there’s some one else. That one we don’t know anything at all about, but it is n’t hardto guess that it was the person whose picture is turned to the wall, and whose miniature was in the locket, and who, probably, occupied the locked-up room. That person must have been some near and dear relation of the Lovely Lady’s, surely. But—what? We can’t tell yet. It might be mother, father, sister, brother, husband, son, or daughter, any of these.
    â€œThe Lovely Lady (I’ll have to call her that, because we don’t know her name) was giving a party, and every one was at dinner, when word was suddenly brought to her about this relative. Or perhaps the person was right there, and did something that displeased her,—I can’t tell which. Whatever it was,—bad news either way,—it could only have been one of two things. Either the relative was dead, or had done something awful and disgraceful. Anyhow, the Lovely Lady was so terribly shocked by it that she dismissed her dinner party right away. I don’t suppose she felt it right to do it. It was not very polite, but probably excusable under the circumstances!”
    â€œMaybe she fainted away,” suggested Cynthia, practically. “Ladies were always doing that years ago, especially when they heard bad news.”
    â€œGood enough I” agreed Joyce. “I never thought of it. She probably did. Of course, that would break up the party at once. Well, when she came to and every one had gone, she was wild, frantic with grief or disappointment or disgust, and decided she just couldn’t stay in that house any longer. She must have dismissed her servants right away, though why she didn’t make them clear up first, I can’t think. Then she began to pack up to go away, and decided she wouldn’t bother taking most of her things. And sometime, just about then, she probably turned the picture to the wall and took the other one out of her locket and threw it into the fire. Then she went away, and never, never came back any more.”
    â€œYes, but how about the house?” objected Cynthia. “How did that get boarded up?”
    â€œI have thought that out,” said Joyce.