of those dreams that seem to hint that some day THAT
will be our real world, that some day we may awake where dreaming then
will be of this; and I woke--came back--and there was a tremendous
knocking going on downstairs. I knew there was no one else in the
house--'

'No one else in the house? And you like this?'

'Yes,' said Lawford, stolidly, 'they were all out as it happened. And,
of course,' he went on quickly, 'there was nothing for me to do but
simply to go down and open the door. And yet, do you know, at first I
simply couldn't move. I lit a candle, and then--then somehow I got
to know that waiting for me was just--but there,' he broke off
half-ashamed, 'I mustn't bother you with all this morbid stuff. Will
your brother be in now, do you think?'

'My brother will be in, and, of course, expecting you. But as for
"bother," believe me--well, did I quite deserve it?' She stooped towards
him. 'You lit a candle--and then?'

They turned and retraced their way slowly up the hill.

'It came again.'

'It?'

'That--that presence, that shadow. I don't mean, of course, it's a real
shadow. It comes, doesn't it, from--from within? As if from out of some
unheard-of hiding place, where it has been lurking for ages and ages
before one's childhood; at least, so it seems to me now. And yet
although it does come from within, there it is, too, in front of you,
before your eyes, feeding even on your fear, just watching, waiting
for--What nonsense all this must seem to you!'

'Yes, yes; and then?'

'Then, and you must remember the poor old boy had been knocking all this
time--my old friend--Mr Bethany, I mean--knocking and calling through
the letter-box, thinking I was in extremis, or something; then--how
shall I describe it?--well YOU came, your eyes, your face, as clear as
when, you know, the night before last, we went up the hill together. And
then...'

'And then?'

'And then, we--you and I, you know--simply drove him downstairs, and
I could hear myself grunting as if it was really a physical effort; we
drove him, step by step, downstairs. And--' He laughed outright, and
boyishly continued his adventure. 'What do you think I did then, without
the ghost of a smile, too, at the idiocy of the thing? I locked the poor
beggar in the drawing-room. I saw him there, as plainly as I ever saw
anything in my life, and the furniture glimmering, though it was pitch
dark: I can't describe it. It all seemed so desperately real, absol