3
Pliny the Younger.
JOSEPH LEWIS FRENCH.
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. THE LISTENER 3 Algernon Blackwood
II. NUMBER 13 45 Montague Rhodes James
III. JOSEPH: A STORY 70 Katherine Rickford
IV. THE HORLA 84 Guy de Maupassant
V. THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS 123 William F. Harvey
VI. SISTER MADDELENA 167 Ralph Adams Cram
VII. THRAWN JANET 191 Robert Louis Stevenson
VIII. THE YELLOW CAT 207 Wilbur Daniel Steele
IX. LETTER TO SURA 237 Pliny the Younger
MASTERPIECES OF MYSTERY
Masterpieces of Mystery
GHOST STORIES
THE LISTENER[A]
ALGERNON BLACKWOOD
Sept. 4.--I have hunted all over London for rooms suited to my income--£120 a year--and have at last found them. Two rooms, without modern conveniences, it is true, and in an old, ramshackle building, but within a stone's throw of P-- Place and in an eminently respectable street. The rent is only £25 a year. I had begun to despair when at last I found them by chance. The chance was a mere chance, and unworthy of record. I had to sign a lease for a year, and I did so willingly. The furniture from our old place in H--shire, which has been stored so long, will just suit them.
* * * * *
Oct. 1.--Here I am in my two rooms, in the centre of London, and not far from the offices of the periodicals where occasionally I dispose of an article or two. The building is at the end of a cul-de-sac. The alley is well paved and clean, and lined chiefly with the backs of sedate and institutional-looking buildings. There is a stable in it. My own house is dignified with the title of "Chambers." I feel as if one day the honour must prove too much for it, and it will swell with pride--and fall asunder. It is very old. The floor of my sitting-room has valleys and low hills on it, and the top of the door slants away from the ceiling with a glorious
Masterpieces of Mystery in Four Volumes, page 2
by Various Authors