Project Gutenberg's Stories by American Authors, Volume 3, by Various

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Title: Stories by American Authors, Volume 3

Author: Various

Release Date: January 27, 2010 [EBook #31095]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Stories by American Authors

VOLUME III

_THE SPIDER'S EYE_
BY LUCRETIA P. HALE

_A STORY OF THE LATIN QUARTER_
BY FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT

_TWO PURSE-COMPANIONS_
BY GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP

_POOR OGLA-MOGA_
BY DAVID D. LLOYD

_A MEMORABLE MURDER_
BY CELIA THAXTER

_VENETIAN GLASS_
BY BRANDER MATTHEWS

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1896

COPYRIGHT, 1884-1885, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

_The Stories in this Volume are protected by copyright, and are
printed here by authority of the authors or their representatives._

[Illustration: Very truly yours,
Octave Thanet]

THE SPIDER'S EYE.

BY LUCRETIA P. HALE.

_Putnam's Magazine, July, 1856._

There are whispering galleries, where, if the ear is placed in a
certain position, it takes in the sound of the lowest whisper from
the opposite side of the room. But, to produce this effect, the
architecture of the apartment must be of a peculiar nature, and,
especially, the rules and laws of sound must be observed.

I have often thought that, were one wise enough, there might be found,
in every room, a centre to which all sound must converge. Nay, that
perhaps such a focus had already been discovered by some one who has
wished to appear wiser than his neighbors, who has made use of some
hitherto unknown scientific fact, and has on any one occasion, or on
many occasions, thus made himself the centre of information.

These ideas occurred to my mind when I arrived the other night early
at the theatre, and was for a time, literally, the only occupant of
the house. I fell to marvelling at the skill of the architect who has
been so successful in the acoustic arrangements of this theatre. Not a
sound, so it is said,