She is escaping the house amidst destruction, despite hail, with her enemy.

If they could make a girl out of canvas and mirrors, she would be appropriately gifted. But they must make the best of a bad job.

The house symbolises possessiveness. It resembles a cairn.

Like the least cautious of the girls before her, she is fish-limbed.

Array

The house speaks in its sleep. The cellar is ravenous. In the anteroom, the priest is enlisted in a conspiracy.

Lost things harry the neighbour.

The house is spiteful, and the person very like herself is handsome, and the girl is like all the girls before her.

When the girl arrives, the house is contaminated by putti. When she leaves, it will break out in rising damp.

The walls of the house contain rooms abandoned but not unused.

The house is an enemy to rabbits, and the lord of the manor is doomed, and the girl is what was dreamed of.

The house, like the girl, is goose-sturdy.

The house is rumoured to be located on a floodplain. It is infested by melodramatic novels. The girl arrives on a rainy day.

As fate would have it, the girl is gale-sturdy. By inclination, the cook is the girl's blackmailer. Together, they must uncover the secrets that form the foundations of the house.

The house is surrounded on five sides by rough country.

The crime the girl commits is to rid the house of its infestation of closets.

The house, like the girl, is patient.

Those in the house sense her fate. But they do not accept that — before she flees —the girl will lead the last-born out of the ruins.

The hermit reeks strongly of compost.

Grinding stones. Libraries. Desire. And a girl knocking on a door, too soon.

In the buttery, there is a unmistakeable reek of wet greyhound.

The house (which ripples faintly in the wind) conforms to principles laid down by the first in the family to rise to fame.

In the reading material in the schoolroom, she finds a collection of essays about poisons and their antidotes.

She discovers that the house is beset by bees, whose honey drips down the walls. But in addition, there is a history of a smiling hunter, who brushes your face with clammy fingers and who is rumoured to be the last creature to have experienced true happiness in the house.

Sweet reader, the girl did not take time to consider.

The house will survive despite her hand. Its gift will evaporate, as if it never was.

The house serves the Count. The schoolroom is hostile. In the sewing room, the girl is discovering evidence.

The girl, like the house, makes her plans.

She arrives at the house at midnight, seeking the identity of a murderer. She carries her naiveté like armour, and ambition.

The ceilings are far too high, but nobody else can see.

The housekeeper is restless.

Reader, even as you dismiss these words as no more than a dream, you discover a painting in the attic, and in it an image of a magnificent villa.

As fate would have it, she is infected by an idea.

The girl cannot leave the house because she's come too far to turn back now.

The house will remain, despite the anger of those gathered against it. Its memory will seep out of the soil for generations.

The house is located at the meeting-place of two rivers. It is contaminated by caryatids. It is seductive.

The spy. The master of the house. The first wife. They promise her too much.

The house is querulous. It is threatened with development as a quarantine hospital.

The girl, like the house, takes what she needs.

The house is restless; it speaks in its sleep.

She soon learns that the house has been infested by unsettling hares, elongated and lamp-eyed, vanishing behind furniture.

When the girl arrives, the house collects uninvited guests. A short time after she leaves, it will be infested by liminal spaces.

The house was rumoured to be located at the head of the river.

Unfortunately, she is sea-eyed.

In the guest bedroom, the brutal housekeeper accepts no excuses. And reflections sigh on the black water of the stagnant pond.

If the girl and the new owner can uncover the murderer, then one of them may escape to bear word of their fate.

The house will stand despite the rot in its foundations. Its legend will reappear when she least expects it, in the pages of a book, in a painting in a gallery. And nothing will change; nothing ever changes.

Sweet reader, prepare yourself: there is every chance the girl will not pause to think.

The house will give the girl a history, in exchange for the mistress of the house.

The girl is running from the house, her hair flying.