ea. On "The Mountain", as it is always and only referred, has an infamous Rattlesnake Ledge on it. "The venomous population of rattlesnake Ledge had a Gibraltar for their fortress." (E.V., p45) The narrator tells of a time when a snake came out of its fortress.
             "A very interesting young married women, detained at home at the time by the state of her health, was bitten in the entry of her own house by a rattlesnake which had found its way down from The Mountain" (E.V., p46)
             The narrator is of course referring to Elsie's mother. "In a striking illustration of prenatal determinism, the child she was carrying, Elsie Venner, acquired "ophidian" qualities from the snake: hypnotic diamond eyes, a slithering walk, and an unfortunate tendency to bite and poison people with her fang teeth." (Petry, p599)
             Holmes' "assortment of character deficiencies" (Faderman, p322) attributed to Elsie are vividly described throug
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