66 WYLDER'S HAJVV.
not get my nerves into a comfortable state, and cheerful
thoughts refused to inhabit the darkened chamber of my
brain. As I stood in a sort of reverie, looking straight
upon the door, I saw — and this time there could be no
mistake whatsoever — the handle — the only modern thing
about it — slowly turned, and the door itself as slowly
pushed about a quarter open.
I do not know what exclamation I made. The door was
shut instantly, and I found myself standing at it, and look-
ing out upon the lobby, with a candle in my hand, and
actually freezing with foolish horror.
I was looking towards the stair-head. The passage was
empty, and ended in utter darkness. I glanced the other
way, and thought I saw — though not distinctly — in the
distance a white figure, not gliding in the conventional way,
but limping off, with a jerky motion, and, in a second or
two, quite lost in darkness.
I got into my room again, and shut the door with a clap
that sounded loudly and unnaturally through the dismal
quiet that surrounded me, and stood with my hand on the
handle, with the instinct of resistance.
I felt uncomfortable; and I would have secured the door,
but there was no sort of fastening within. So I paused.
I did not mind looking out again. To tell you the plain
truth, I was just a little bit afraid. Then 1 grew angry
at having been put into such remote, and, possibly, suspect-
ed quarters, and then my comfortable scepticism super-
vened.
So, in due course having smoked my cheroot, I jerked
the stump into the fire. Of course I could not think of
depriving myself of candle-light; and being already of a
thoughtful, old-bachelor temperament, and averse from
burning houses, I placed one of my tall wax-lights in a
basin on the table by my bed — in which I soon effected a
lodgment, and lay with a comparative sense of security.