Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel): Difference between revisions

[[The Ruined Chapel]] is described. It may be accessed by leaving the House proper by “the back door of [[the Conservatory]]” and taking the path between [[the Dark Wood]] and [[the Tarn]]. There, before its altar bearing a statue of a headless, hands-less woman, is [[the Lady in Mourning]], a mysterious, ghostly figure in perpetual grief, wearing a black veil that goes down to her feet. To a visitor who distracts her from her despair via something like a story or a song, she will answer any question, except for her name. The altar is surrounded by ashes that are all that is left of visitors who looked upon her unveiled face — for every night, at midnight, she lifts it up to cry out “Woe unto they who once stood on high! Their temples are in ruins and their names are forgotten.”.

An old, [[wandering mendicant (Our Strange and Wonderful House)|wandering mendicant]] in dusty, tattered clothing, evidence of “a long and arduous journey”, comes to [[the Ruined Chapel|the narthex]] and impresses [[the Lady in Mourning]] with a “beautiful and haunting song of despair and decay” before kneeling and asking her if her name is “Catherine”. She answers no, he sings another song, asks her if her name is “Osceola”, and so on and so forth as he peacefully spends the last years of his life trying to find out the Lady's name, retreating each night around midnight (when she unveils so lethally) to gather food and drink from the wilds near [[the Tarn]]. Eventually, he passes away, a last “smiling” question on his lips. At midnight, the Lady, instead of her usual refrains, looks up towards the stars to sing “a song of hope and dreams”. The next morning, the Chapel has lost its aura of melancholy, and the Lady in Mourning has gone, as has the statue on the altar.