The Reading Room · House lore
The Hall Mirror
Every old house has a story it tells guests. This is the one we tell when the porch light's off.
Checking the hall's collection…
A little of our hallway, waiting for a place in yours. These pictures belong to the house story.
A seat before the glass
The Mirror Reading
Three cards laid beneath Miss Delphine's candle: what the glass shows, what the reflection hides, and what to carry into the light.
Draw from the mirrorFor reflection and entertainment.
Chapter 1 · 1891
It came with the house
The mirror arrived on a riverboat crate with no bill of lading, addressed to a house that hadn't been built yet. When the carpenters finished the hall, it was already leaning against the wall, waiting.
Gilded cypress, glass gone the color of tea. Nobody remembers hanging it. Every owner since has tried to take it down. The nails won't come out.
Chapter 2 · 1927
Miss Delphine
Delphine Arceneaux ran the house as a boarding home the year the river came over the levee. She kept a candle burning in the hall so the water-stranded could find the door.
Guests said she'd stand at the mirror for hours, talking low, laying cards on the hall table. When the flood went down, Delphine was gone. Her candle was still lit in the glass. Not in her hand. In the glass.
Chapter 3 · 1958 – now
Something wants out
The cracks started the night a guest threw a shoe at it. They spread a little each night, always from the inside, never touching the frame.
Sometimes there's a fingerprint on the wrong side. Sometimes the reflection is a half-second late. Sometimes it's Delphine, smiling a smile she never had, holding up a card you haven't drawn yet.
Chapter 4 · Today
The crow keeps watch
A crow started roosting on the gallery rail the year we opened as a bed and breakfast. It laughs at the mirror. Every so often it leaves a card on the hall table: the same cards Delphine used to lay.
That's where our deck came from. We drew each card the crow left behind, and we read them in the room at the end of the hall, with the mirror uncovered, so she can listen in.
House Rules for the Hall
Framed by the front desk. Please read before checking in.
- Cover the mirror before you sleep. The cloth is on the hook.
- Never read the cards with your back to the glass.
- If the reflection blinks first, leave the room. Don't run.
- Leave a light burning in the hall. Delphine likes to find the door.
- If the crow laughs, someone at breakfast is lying.