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Page 51
"Oh, David, what is it?" whispered Mrs. Townsend.
"Darned if I know!" said David.
"Don't swear. It's too awful. Oh, see the looking-glass, David!"
"I see it. The one over the library mantel is broken, too."
"Oh, it is a sign of death!"
Cordelia's feet were heard as she staggered on the stairs. She
almost fell into the room. She reeled over to Mr. Townsend and
clutched his arm. He cast a sidewise glance, half furious, half
commiserating at her.
"Well, what is it all about?" he asked.
"I don't know. What is it? Oh, what is it? The looking-glass in
the kitchen is broken. All over the floor. Oh, oh! What is it?"
"I don't know any more than you do. I didn't do it."
"Lookin'-glasses broken is a sign of death in the house," said
Cordelia. "If it's me, I hope I'm ready; but I'd rather die than
be so scared as I've been lately."
Mr. Townsend shook himself loose and eyed the two trembling women
with gathering resolution.
"Now, look here, both of you," he said. "This is nonsense. You'll
die sure enough of fright if you keep on this way. I was a fool
myself to be startled. Everything it is is an earthquake."
"Oh, David!" gasped his wife, not much reassured.
"It is nothing but an earthquake," persisted Mr. Townsend. "It
acted just like that. Things always are broken on the walls, and
the middle of the room isn't affected. I've read about it."
Suddenly Mrs. Townsend gave a loud shriek and pointed.
"How do you account for that," she cried, "if it's an earthquake?
Oh, oh, oh!"
She was on the verge of hysterics. Her husband held her firmly by
the arm as his eyes followed the direction of her rigid pointing
finger. Cordelia looked also, her eyes seeming converged to a
bright point of fear. On the floor in front of the broken looking-
glass lay a mass of black stuff in a grewsome long ridge.
"It's something you dropped there," almost shouted Mr. Townsend.
"It ain't. Oh!"
Mr. Townsend dropped his wife's arm and took one stride toward the
object. It was a very long crape veil. He lifted it, and it
floated out from his arm as if imbued with electricity.
"It's yours," he said to his wife.
"Oh, David, I never had one. You know, oh, you know I--shouldn't--
unless you died. How came it there?"
"I'm darned if I know," said David, regarding it. He was deadly
pale, but still resentful rather than afraid.
"Don't hold it; don't!"
"I'd like to know what in thunder all this means?" said David. He
gave the thing an angry toss and it fell on the floor in exactly
the same long heap as before.
Cordelia began to weep with racking sobs. Mrs. Townsend reached
out and caught her husband's hand, clutching it hard with ice-cold
fingers.
"What's got into this house, anyhow?" he growled.
"You'll have to sell it. Oh, David, we can't live here."
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