But neither could it be said that he looked young ; he had never at any time looked young with common youth ; there had always been something in his appearance that stamped him as different from the ordinary run of men , and , apart from his shyness , built up an intangible , invisible barrier between him and his kind . He had lived all his life in Carlisle ; and all the Carlisle people knew of or about him -- although they thought they knew everything -- was that he was painfully , abnormally shy . He never went anywhere except to church ; he never took part in Carlisle 's simple social life ; even with most men he was distant and reserved ; as for women , he never spoke to or looked at them ; if one spoke to him , even if she were a matronly old mother in Israel , he was at once in an agony of painful blushes . He had no friends in the sense of companions ; to all outward appearance his life was solitary and devoid of any human interest . He had no housekeeper ; but his old house , furnished as it had been in his mother 's lifetime , was cleanly and daintily kept . The quaint rooms were as free from dust and disorder as a woman could have had them . This was known , because Jasper Dale occasionally had his hired man 's wife , Mrs. Griggs , in to scrub for him . On the morning she was expected he betook himself to woods and fields , returning only at night-fall . During his absence Mrs. Griggs was frankly wont to explore the house from cellar to attic , and her report of its condition was always the same -- `` neat as wax . '' To be sure , there was one room that was always locked against her , the west gable , looking out on the garden and the hill of pines beyond . But Mrs. Griggs knew that in the lifetime of Jasper Dale 's mother it had been unfurnished . She supposed it still remained so , and felt no especial curiosity concerning it , though she always tried the door . Jasper Dale had a good farm , well cultivated ; he had a large garden where he worked most of his spare time in summer ; it was supposed that he read a great deal , since the postmistress declared that he was always getting books and magazines by mail . He seemed well contented with his existence and people let him alone , since that was the greatest kindness they could do him . It was unsupposable that he would ever marry ; nobody ever had supposed it . `` Jasper Dale never so much as THOUGHT about a woman , '' Carlisle oracles declared . Oracles , however , are not always to be trusted . One day Mrs. Griggs went away from the Dale place with a very curious story , which she diligently spread far and wide . It made a good deal of talk , but people , although they listened eagerly , and wondered and questioned , were rather incredulous about it . They thought Mrs. Griggs must be drawing considerably upon her imagination ; there were not lacking those who declared that she had invented the whole account , since her reputation for strict veracity was not wholly unquestioned .
Mrs. XXXXX 's story was as follows : -- One day she found the door of the west gable unlocked .
Carlisle Dale Griggs Israel morning night-fall oracles people postmistress shyness