Lord! what a harrowing, whimpering thing he seemed!



"'You pull yourself together,' I said, and tried to pat him on the

back, and . . . my confounded hand went through him! By that time,

you know, I wasn't nearly so--massive as I had been on the landing.

I got the queerness of it full. I remember snatching back my hand out

of him, as it were, with a little thrill, and walking over to the

dressing-table. 'You pull yourself together,' I said to him, 'and

try.' And in order to encourage and help him I began to try as well."



"What!" said Sanderson, "the passes?"



"Yes, the passes."



"But--" I said, moved by an idea that eluded me for a space.



"This is interesting," said Sanderson, with his finger in his pipe-

bowl. "You mean to say this ghost of yours gave away--"



"Did his level best to give away the whole confounded barrier? YES."



"He didn't," said Wish; "he couldn't. Or you'd have gone there too."



"That's precisely it," I said, finding my elusive idea put into words

for me.



"That IS precisely it," said Clayton, with thoughtful eyes upon the

fire.



For just a little while there was silence.



"And at last he did it?" said Sanderson.



"At last he did it. I had to keep him up to it hard, but he did it

at last--rather suddenly. He despaired, we had a scene, and then

he got up abruptly and asked me to go through the whole performance,

slowly, so that he might see. 'I believe,' he said, 'if I could SEE

I should spot what was wrong at once.' And he did. '_I_ know,'

he said. 'What do you know?' said I. '_I_ know,' he repeated.

Then he said, peevishly, 'I CAN'T do it if you look at me--I really

CAN'T; it's been that, partly, all along. I'm such a nervous fellow

that you put me out.' Well, we had a bit of an argument. Naturally

I wanted to see; but he was as obstinate as a mule, and suddenly

I had come over as tired as a dog--he tired me out. 'All right,'

I said, '_I_ won't look at you,' and turned towards the mirror,

on the wardrobe, by the bed.



He started off very fast. I tried to follow him by looking in

the looking-glass, to see just what it was had hung. Round went

his arms and his hands, so, and so, and so, and then with a rush



<< previous page | next page >>

Jump to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 | 109 | 110 | 111 | 112 | 113 | 114 | 115 | 116 | 117 | 118 | 119 | 120 | 121 | 122 | 123 | 124 | 125 | 126 | 127 | 128 | 129 | 130 | 131 | 132 | 133 | 134 | 135 | 136 | 137 | 138 | 139 | 140 | 141 | 142 | 143 | 144 | 145 | 146 | 147 | 148 | 149 | 150 | 151 | 152 | 153 | 154 | 155 | 156 | 157 | 158 | 159 | 160 | 161 |