THE VEILED LADY.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXVI, Issue 4469, 8 September 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE VEILED LADY.

IN THE LITTLE WHITE HOUSE,

In a little white house on tho outskirts of Kirtland, Ohio, the first home of Mbrfnonkm in the west—lives a spinster who was known in girlhobci for hen- beauty She has worn a heavy veil for more than 10 years. In all that tunc, so far as tho people of the village know, no man lias seen her face. Few women have', seen ’beyond the heavy v HI. Sometimes, whan alone, she raises the veil to her forehead, but she pulls it down at the first approach of a human Mng.' When she drives out it k doubly thick and envelops her face from her forehead to her chin; '

Tire name of the veiled lady is Harriet Martindale. She has money. - and slid is not stingy with it. She bought a library for the village. She bought homes for two aged spinsters who had lost their own

No one in the village knows why she wears rhe veil, but the gossip is 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 in place when she opens the door. She,stands with her side or back to the visitor. Tho homo 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 jdoor was opened about a foot. Beyond lay a darkened room. From behind the heavy door came tho voice of a woman, low and kind. "What is it?” “ Is chis Miss Martindale P n . “Yes” .

The finger tips drew back, the door closed, the latch clicked. There were hurried footsteps inside, then the inner door closed with a bang. All Was still. To further raps there was no answer. The veiled lady has Jived 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 yoiing woman of .unusual beauty, ; / . She.had large black eyes. Her hair was dark. She was fond of horses, and coula manage the wildest on the farm. She was graceful, popular, and had many suitors., . ...

'•Tb® postmaster and tjie other old residents of the'village rehiember. a morning more than 40. years .ago >vhen she y.‘as missing from home. . She .had risen m the night, harnessed a colt, and ridden north. . The, whole .country-side was_ aroused. The lake to yyhich the tracks of the' colt led wasdji'agged. Bi.jt the girl was not dr.ojxped. She returned homo while they were patrolling the beach. . She said she had gone away to he*, 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 grown middle-aged remember when, .as little girls, they sometimes went to the house of'the, veiled lady to look at picture books‘-she had for them. "Even in those days she kept her face hidden.