the van kuren mansion and grounds constituted one of the finest places in the upper part of new york, and to bruce, accustomed to plain ways of living, it seemed almost like some enchanted palace in fairyland. for fully an hour he strolled about the grounds under the guidance of miss laura van kuren, who talked to him as freely and frankly as if she had known him all her life. harry was in disgrace, she said, for going off without consulting his tutor, and he would probably be kept in the house until he had learned and recited the lesson which had been given him that morning. meantime she would entertain his guest herself, and as she was very pretty, very bright, and altogether very friendly and charming, bruce did not feel the absence of her brother to any great extent. in fact, he was mean enough to hope in his secret heart that mr. reed would keep him in the house all the rest of the afternoon so that he and laura might continue their confidential talk as they walked about together.
69and as they talked, bruce, who was naturally a diffident boy, became emboldened to such a degree that he made up his mind to ask the young girl if she knew anything about mr. dexter and the big, old fashioned house, which had seemed familiar ground to her. the opportunity for putting the question soon came. they were sitting together in a small summer house, eating some strawberries which they had picked in the garden, taking advantage of a moment when the gardener was off in another part of the grounds.
“did you ever know a mr. dexter, who lives near here?” inquired bruce, during a pause in the conversation.
the girl looked up quickly as she said, “you don’t mean that old gentleman who lives over there about half a mile along the road, do you?”
“yes, he lives in a big square stone house,” said the boy.
laura cast a hasty and apprehensive glance around her, and then said in lowered tones, as if she feared that some one were listening, “i know who he is, but papa won’t let us go near his house. papa says that he’s a bad man and he won’t have anything to do with him, but i think he’s real nice, and one day, about a year 70ago, i was out walking near there, and he saw me and called me in and gave me some big bunches of splendid grapes, and then he asked me my name, and when i told him he seemed surprised, and somehow he wasn’t nice any more, and in a minute or two he told me that i had better run home or my people would be anxious about me. when i got home i told papa about it, and he was awfully angry, and said that i must never go into that yard again, and that if i saw mr. dexter coming i must run away. i asked him why, and he wouldn’t tell me. but where did you ever hear of him?”
bruce hesitated a few minutes before replying, and then made answer, “the chief of our battalion, mr. trask, sent me up there the other day on an errand.”
“and did you go inside the grounds and into the house?” demanded laura, excitedly. “do tell me all about it, for it is such a romantic looking place that i always feel as if there were some mysterious story connected with it. and then that old mr. dexter never goes out anywhere, and nobody seems to know anything about him. my nurse, the one who lived with us for twenty-five years, told me once that mr. dexter and papa used to be great friends, but they had some kind of a quarrel. i asked her 71what they quarreled about and she wouldn’t tell me, although i am sure she knows all about it.”
the young girl’s words of course made a deep impression on bruce, who was now more curious than ever to learn the history of the kindly old gentleman who lived all by himself in the big, square stone house behind the thick hedge.
“go on and tell me all about what you saw there,” said laura eagerly. “i am sure there’s some mystery about the place like the ones we read about in the story books. when i was a little bit of a girl, i used to imagine there was a sleeping beauty hidden away behind those dark trees and i expected that some day a prince would come and wake her up and that then there’d be a grand party for everybody around here to go to.”
“well, there is a mystery about it, and it’s one i’d like very much to solve,” said bruce quietly.
“a mystery!” exclaimed laura, “now you must tell me everything about it before you leave this summer-house,” and she spoke in the tones of a young girl who expected to have her own way.
72“i don’t know whether i ought to say anything to you about it or not,” began the boy in a doubtful voice, “and besides you might not be interested in the mystery because after all it only concerns myself.”
“go right on and tell me this very minute!” cried the girl imperiously.
“you’ll promise never to tell as long as you live and breathe?”
“hope to die, if i do,” rejoined laura fervently, “now, go on.”
thus adjured, bruce told her the story of his visit to mr. dexter’s house and the strangely familiar look that the place had worn; and he told her, too, of the conversation that he had had with charley weyman and of the advice that the latter had given him. laura listened to his words with the deepest attention, and when he had finished, she drew a long breath and said, “that’s the most interesting, romantic thing i ever heard about in all my life. and you don’t really know who your folks are? why you might be almost anybody in the world, and maybe you’re the prince who will come and waken up the princess with a kiss, the same as in the story book. but how are you going to work to find out what it all means? you must tell me everything you do about it for i’ll never be able to sleep at night until you’re restored to your rights.”
bruce tells laura the story of his visit to mr. dexter’s house.—page 72.
73bruce, who was of a rather practical turn of mind, was amused at the excitement of his more imaginative companion. up to this moment he had simply felt a curiosity to learn why it was that the dexter homestead seemed familiar to him, and it had never occurred to him that he had any particular “rights” to be restored to him, or that any grave question depended on the fancied resemblance of the place to the one pictured in his memory.
“i would like very much to learn something about mr. dexter and his old house, but i don’t know how to go about it. i always lived in the country, and, outside the men in our fire company, i have no friends or even acquaintances in new york. you have lived here all your life, and everything seems natural to you, but you’ve no idea what a big, lonely, desolate place this city is to a boy like me who comes here as a stranger.”
“i’ll tell you what,” exclaimed laura suddenly, “when my papa comes home to-night—you know you’re going to stay to dinner with us—you ask him about mr. dexter but don’t tell him that you said a word to me about it. maybe he’ll tell you something that will be of 74some use to you, but don’t say a word to him about what you told me about your visit there. we must keep that for our own secret, and i shall be mad if you tell him or harry or anybody else, and if i get mad i won’t help you to find out the mystery of it. now, you must do just what i tell you or else i won’t like you any more.”
“what secret are you talking about?” demanded some one close beside them in a voice so loud that both laura and bruce started in surprise from their seats. it was harry who had just been released by his tutor and had been, according to his own account, hunting them all over the grounds.
laura put her finger on her lips and threw a significant glance at bruce, and so it happened that harry learned nothing of what they had been talking about for fully half an hour.
at six o’clock, mr. van kuren reached home. he shook hands with bruce and told him he was glad to see him and thanked him for his kindness to harry.
bruce noticed that both children appeared to stand in wholesome awe of their parent, obeying him with the utmost alacrity and conversing only in low tones while he was present. this was not surprising to the young visitor, 75for mr. van kuren impressed him as a stern, silent, self-contained man, who might be very severe if he chose to. but his face was not unkind, and in the few remarks that he addressed to his guest he showed a certain interest in his welfare and a desire to make him feel as much at home as it was possible for a shy, country boy, unaccustomed to the ways of society, to feel in a splendid house like the one in which he found himself now. but all idea of asking him about the dexter mansion left his mind, and although he found himself alone with him for a few moments before dinner was announced, he simply did not dare to broach the subject that was uppermost in his mind.
the dinner to which he sat down seemed to bruce a very grand affair. it was served in a large, square room, wainscoted in dark wood and furnished in a rich, simple and tasteful fashion. the round table was covered with a white damask cloth of beautiful texture and the glass and silver seemed to have been polished with wonderful care. colored wax candles with silk shades shed a soft light. besides mr. van kuren and his two children there were two other persons in the company; mr. reed, the tutor, a tall, grave young man who talked but little, and seemed to watch 76harry with much care, and a delicate, nervous lady, a sister of mr. van kuren’s, whom the children called aunt emma, and who retired to her apartment as soon as the cloth was removed.
for such a fine dinner it seemed to bruce that every thing moved very easily and quietly. there were two men in black coats and white ties who went about noiselessly serving the guests and removing the dishes. mr. van kuren, miss van kuren and mr. reed drank wine, but there were no glasses at either harry’s or laura’s plate. mr. van kuren asked bruce if he would like a little claret, and he declined. he began to explain why he did not wish any, but stopped suddenly, feeling perhaps that he was saying too much, but mr. van kuren helped him out with a kindly, smiling inquiry, and he went on: “chief trask of my battalion advised me not to drink anything, because he told me that when it was known of a young fireman that he did not take a drop of anything it was a great aid to him and helped him to get along.”
“very good indeed,” said mr. van kuren approvingly, “at any rate you’re too young now to need it.”
77at first, the young visitor was not quite sure of himself and did not know exactly what to do with all the forks that he found beside his plate, but by carefully watching his host he managed to acquit himself with credit; and when they arose from the table he realized that he had not made one single “bad break” as harry would have called it.
“did you ask papa about the dexter house?” whispered laura at the first opportunity.
“no,” replied the boy simply, “i was too much afraid of him; after what you told about his getting mad, i wouldn’t have said anything about mr. dexter for a hundred dollars.”
soon after dinner bruce took his leave, having promised his new friends that he would pay them another visit as soon as he could. ashe was saying good-bye, laura slipped into his hand a small piece of paper, and when he opened it in the elevated train he found the following note:
“i have a splendid idea and will let you know about it very soon. i think it will help you to solve the mystery of the haunted house.
“truly your friend,
laura van kuren.”
