An Apparition And Death

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The old family seat of the T.'s, one of the most prominent names in the

community, is not far from the scenes of the above-mentioned adventure.

In all this region of lovely situations and charming water views, its

site is one of the most beautiful. The brick mansion, with all the

strangely mixed comforts and discomforts of ancient architecture, rears

its roof up from an elevated lawn, while the silvery thread of a

land locked stream winds nearly around the whole. Over the further bank

dance the sparkling waters of a broad estuary, flashing in the glance of

the sunshine or tossing its white-capped billows in angry mimicry of the

sea. The gleam of white sails is never lacking to add variety and

picturesqueness to the scene. In the dead, hushed calm of a summer

evening, when the lifted oar rests on the gunwale, unwilling to disturb

with its dip the glassy surface, one has a strange, dreamy sense of

being suspended in space, the sky, in all its changing beauties, being

accurately reflected in illimitable depth by the still water, until the

charm is broken by the splash and ripple of a school of nomadic alewives

or the gliding, sinuous fin of a piratical shark. In this lovely home it

was wont for the family to assemble on the occasion of certain domestic

celebrations, and it was at one of these that the following incident

occurred: All were present except one member, who was detained by

sickness at her residence, fifteen miles away. It was in early afternoon

that one of the ladies standing at an open window, suddenly exclaimed:

"Why, there's Aunt Milly crossing the flower garden!" The party

approached the window, and beheld, in great surprise, the lady, in her

ordinary costume, slowly strolling among the flowers. She paused and

looked earnestly at the group, her features plainly visible; then turned

and disappeared amidst the shrubbery. No trace of her presence being

discoverable, it was natural that a gloom fell upon the company. A few

hours later a messenger arrived with the intelligence of her death. The

time of her apparition and the time of her death coincided.