A Mysterious Disappearance

Miss MacWinkle was of that age when unmarried people are afraid to go out into the street unprotected. She was between thirty-five and forty. Of a romantic nature, and rather addicted to moonlight dreamings, her constant dread was that some member of the male sex would carry her off. She trembled if she found herself alone in a railway carriage with a man. She disliked men in general—they are so deceitful. Rather easy in her circumstances, she had made up her mind that if she ever did allow herself to be wooed—and she laid great stress on the did—it should be for her money; but in a general way she deprecated the idea that she could ever be prevailed upon to relinquish single blessedness for that wedded state which, she had heard, was fraught with so many disappointments.

Miss MacWinkle, being of good family, had a pretty extensive circle of acquaintances, and spent most of her autumn in visiting at country houses. Some weeks ago she received an invitation from a lady who was distantly related to her, and whose husband, Capt. Jaffie, of the royal navy, had recently purchased an estate in Suffolk with the proceeds of a legacy. On this estate was a hall which had been formerly inhabited by a squire of eccentric turn, who, because he lived alone and minded his own business, was generally suspected of having… Read More