THE VEILED LADY

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 342, 28 November 1911, Page 2

THE VEILED LADY

IN THE LITTLE WHITE HOUSE. In a little white house on the outskirts of Kirtland, Ohio, the first home of Mormon ism, m the West, lives a spinster who was known m girlhood for her beauty. She has worn a heavy veil for more than 40 years. In all that time, so far as the people m the village know, no man has seen her face. Few people have 6een beyond the heavy veil. Sometimes, when alone, she raises the veil to her forehead but she pulls it down at the first approach of a human being. When she driv.es out it is doubly thick, and envelops her face from her forehead to her chin. The name, of the veiled lady is Harriet Martindale. ■ She has money, and she is not stingy with it-. She bought a library for the village. She bought homes for two aged spinsters who had lost their own. Nx> one m the village knows why she wears the veil, bub the gossip ir that it is because of a love affair and a resolution made more than 40 years ago that no man should again see her face. To strangers who call at the little white house the veiled lady seldom shows herself. Men whom she has known since boyhood sometimes call on farm business. Her veil is m place when she opens the door. She stands with her side or back to the visitor. The house was silent when the writer (says the 'New York World ') knocked at the heavy, wide white door. Footsteps were soon heard, however. A bolt was drawn, and the heavy door was opened about a foot. Beyond lay a darkened room. From behind the heavy door came the voice of a woman, low and kind. "What is it?"' "Is this Miss Martindale?" "Yes." The finger tips drew back, the door closed, the latch clicked. TJhere were hurried footsteps inside, then the inner door closed with a bang. All was still. To further raps there was no answer. — An Unusual Beauty. — The veiled lady has lived there ever since she was a little girl. The postmaster at Kirtland went to school with her at the old Western Reserve Seminary, and remembers her as a young woman of unusual .beauty. She had large black eyes. Her hair was dark. She was fond of horses, and could manage ths wildest on the farm. She was graceful, popular, and had many suitors. The postmaster and the other old residents of the village remembered a morning more than- 40 years a^o when she was" missing from home. S'io had : risen m the night, harnessed a colt, and ridden north. The whole countryside, was aroused. The lake to .which the tvacks of the colt led was dragged. But the girl was not drowned. She returned home whib they were still patrolling the beach. She said she had gone, away to be alone, and, as far as the postmaster remembers, no other explanation was made. When they saw her again the veil covered her face." She has worn it ever . since. Women now gi'own middleaged remember \^hen, as little girls, they sometimes werit to the house of the veiied lady to look at picture books she had for lhem. Even m those dare she kept her face hidden. —— — - — — — — — „