Scoured Silk

Scoured Silk is a horror story written in the 1940s by Marjorie Bowen. During Octobers I focus on horror films and stories, and I'd like to share this one for T Stands for Tuesday, a blogger gathering where the posts must contain a drink reference. This is an excerpt from the story:

Her thoughts were quite vague and amounted to no more than a confused sense that something was wrong, but she lost her satisfaction in the tea-drinking and the pleasant company, and the warm room with the drawn curtains, and the bright fire, and rose up saying they must be returning

I'm having a seasonal hot beverage while I read these spooky stories. Join me? Perhaps the company will take the edge off the horror to come.

You can read the story online here. It begins:

This is a tale that might be told in many ways and from various points of view; it has to be gathered from here and there — a letter, a report, a diary, a casual reference; in its day the thing was more than a passing wonder, and it left a mark of abiding horror on the neighborhood.

The house in which Mr. Orford lived has finally been destroyed, the mural tablet in St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, may be sought for in vain by the curious, but little remains of the old piazza where the quiet scholar passed on his daily walks, the very records of what was once so real have become blurred, almost incoherent in their pleadings with things forgotten; but this thing happened to real people, in a real London, not so long ago that the generation had not spoken with those who remembered some of the actors in this terrible drama.

It is round the person of Humphrey Orford that this tale turns, as, at the time, all the mystery and horror centered; yet until his personality was brought thus tragically into fame, he had not been an object of much interest to many; he had, perhaps, a mild reputation for eccentricity, but this was founded merely on the fact that he refused to partake of the amusements of his neighbors, and showed a dislike for much company.

I'm typing on a new computer, and I can't tell you how happy I am we were able to take care of this issue without too much stress. I think I've managed to find everybody again, but I doubt I'll ever catch up *sigh*