THE YOUNG GENTLEMEN, A Short Story by Edith Wharton

In the quiet New England village of Harpledon, where time stands still and history whispers through the heavy-roofed colonial houses, a man’s past is buried deeper than anyone suspects. Waldo Cranch, the town’s most enigmatic resident, guards his ancestral home with an almost obsessive secrecy-until a chance encounter with a prying architect sets off a chain of events that unravels a mystery long hidden behind its granite walls. As suspicions mount and the town’s most curious inhabitants inch closer to the truth, a shocking revelation emerges from the shadows of the Cranch house-one that shatters the village’s genteel façade and leaves an unthinkable horror exposed. Some secrets are meant to stay buried… but what happens when they refuse?