finish the
refreshments they had ordered.

For a long time I wandered aimlessly up and down, and about midnight I
started off for home; I was very calm and very tired. My concierge[9]
opened the door at once, which was quite unusual for him, and I thought
that another lodger had no doubt just come in.

When I go out I always double-lock the door of my room, and I found it
merely closed, which surprised me; but I supposed that some letters had
been brought up for me in the course of the evening.

I went in, and found my fire still burning, so that it lighted up the
room a little, and, in the act of taking up a candle, I noticed somebody
sitting in my armchair by the fire, warming his feet, with his back
towards me.

I was not in the slightest degree frightened. I thought very naturally
that some friend or other had come to see me. No doubt the porter, whom
I had told when I went out, had lent him his own key. In a moment I
remembered all the circumstances of my return, how the street door had
been opened immediately, and that my own door was only latched, and not
locked.

I could see nothing of my friend but his head, and he had evidently gone
to sleep while waiting for me, so I went up to him to rouse him. I saw
him quite clearly; his right arm was hanging down and his legs were
crossed, while his head, which was somewhat inclined to the left of the
armchair, seemed to indicate that he was asleep. "Who can it be?" I
asked myself. I could not see clearly, as the room was rather dark, so I
put out my hand to touch him on the shoulder, and it came in contact
with the back of the chair. There was nobody there; the seat was empty.

I fairly jumped with fright. For a moment I drew back as if some
terrible danger had suddenly appeared in my way; then I turned round
again, impelled by some imperious desire of looking at the armchair
again, and I remained standing upright, panting with fear, so upset that
I could not collect my thoughts, and ready to drop.

But I am a cool man, and soon recovered myself. I thought: "It is a mere
hallucination, that is all," and I immediately began to reflect about
this phenomenon. Thoughts fly very quickly at such moments.

I had been suffering from a hallucination, that was an incontestable
fact. My mind had been perfectly lucid and had acted regularly and
logically, so there was nothing the matter with the brain. It was only
my eyes that had been deceived; they had had a vision, one o