The Mill Mystery

The Mill Mystery

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mill Mystery, by Anna Katherine Green #10 in our series by Anna Katherine Green
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Title: The Mill Mystery
Author: Anna Katherine Green
Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6805] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on January 26, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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Produced by Robert Fite, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. This file was produced from images generously made available by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions.

THE MILL MYSTERY

BY
ANNA KATHARINE GREEN
AUTHOR OF "THE LEAVENWORTH CASE," "A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE," "HAND AND RING," ETC. ETC.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I-------THE ALARM
II------A FEARFUL QUESTION
III-----ADA
IV------THE POLLARDS
V-------DOUBTS AND QUERIES
VI------MRS. POLLARD
VII-----ADVANCES
VIII----A FLOWER FROM THE POLLARD CONSERVATORY
IX------AN UNEXPECTED DISCOVERY
X-------RHODA COLWELL
XI------UNDER THE MILL FLOOR
XII-----DWIGHT POLLARD
XIII----GUY POLLARD
XIV-----CORRESPONDENCE
XV------A GOSSIP
XVI-----THE GREEN ENVELOPE
XVII----DAVID BARROWS
XVIII---A LAST REQUEST
XIX-----A FATAL DELAY
XX------THE OLD MILL
XXI-----THE VAT
XXII----THE CYPHER
XXIII---TOO LATE
XXIV----CONFRONTED
XXV-----THE FINAL BLOW
XXVI----A FELINE TOUCH
XXVII---REPARATION
XXVIII--TWO OR ONE

THE MILL MYSTERY
* * * * *

I.
THE ALARM.
Life, struck sharp on death, Makes awful lightning. --MRS. BROWNING.
I had just come in from the street. I had a letter in my hand. It was for my fellow-lodger, a young girl who taught in the High School, and whom I had persuaded to share my room because of her pretty face and quiet ways. She was not at home, and I flung the letter down on the table, where it fell, address downwards. I thought no more of it; my mind was too full, my heart too heavy with my own trouble.
Going to the window, I leaned my cheek against the pane. Oh, the deep sadness of a solitary woman's life! The sense of helplessness that comes upon her when every effort made, every possibility sounded, she realizes that the world has no place for her, and that she must either stoop to ask the assistance of friends or starve! I have no words for the misery I felt, for I am a proud woman, and----But no lifting of the curtain that shrouds my past. It has fallen for ever, and for you and me and the world I am simply Constance Sterling, a young woman of twenty-five, without home, relatives, or means of support, having in her pocket seventy-five cents of change, and in her breast a heart like lead, so utterly had every hope vanished in the day's rush of disappointments.
How long I stood with my face to the window I cannot say. With eyes dully fixed upon the blank walls of the cottages opposite, I stood oblivious to all about me till the fading sunlight--or was it some stir in the room behind me?--recalled me to myself, and I turned to find my pretty room-mate staring at me with a troubled look that for a moment made me forget my own sorrows and anxieties.
"What is it?" I asked, going towards her with an irresistible impulse of sympathy.
"I don't know," she murmured; "a sudden pain here," laying her hand on her heart.
I advanced still nearer, but her face, which had been quite pale, turned suddenly rosy; and, with a more natural expression, she took me by the hand, and said:
"But you look more than ill, you look unhappy. Would you mind telling me what worries you?"
The gentle tone, the earnest glance of modest yet sincere interest, went to my heart. Clutching her hand convulsively, I burst into tears.
"It is nothing," said I; "only my last resource has failed, and I don't know where to get a meal for to-morrow. Not that this is any thing in itself," I hastened to add, my natural pride reasserting itself; "but the future! the future!--what am I to do with my future?"
She did not answer at first. A gleam--I can scarcely call it a glow--passed over her face, and her eyes took a far-away look that made them very sweet. Then a little flush stole into her cheek, and, pressing my hand, she said:
"Will you trust it to me for a while?"
I must have looked my astonishment,