I didn't even
_smell_ anything, as they do in that horrid book, 'The Haunted Hotel.'"

"Then why had you such bad nights?"

"Oh, I _felt_" said the maiden aunt, with a little shudder.

"What did _you feel_, Aunt Judy?"

"I _know_ you will laugh," said the maiden aunt, abruptly entering on her
nervous narrative. "I felt all the time _as if somebody was looking
through the window_. Now, you know, there _couldn't_ be anybody. It was
in an Irish country house where I had just arrived, and my room was on
the second floor. The window was old-fashioned and narrow, with a deep
recess. As soon as I went to bed, my dears, I _felt_ that some one was
looking through the window, and meant to come in. I got up, and bolted
the window, though I knew it was impossible for anybody to climb up
there, and I drew the curtains, but I could not fall asleep. If ever I
began to dose, I would waken with a start, and turn and look in the
direction of the window. I did not sleep all night, and next night,
though I was dreadfully tired, it was just the same thing. So I had to
take my hostess into my confidence, though it was extremely disagreeable,
my dears, to seem so foolish. I only told her that I thought the air, or
something, must disagree with me, for I could not sleep. Then, as some
one was leaving the house that day, she implored me to try another room,
where I slept beautifully, and afterwards had a very pleasant visit. But,
the day I went away, my hostess asked me if I had been kept awake by
anything in particular, for instance, by a feeling that some one was
trying to come in at the window. Well, I admitted that I _had_ a nervous
feeling of that sort, and she said that she was very sorry, and that
every one who lay in the room had exactly the same sensation. She
supposed they must all have heard the history of the room, in childhood,
and forgotten that they had heard it, and then been consciously reminded
of it by reflex action. It seems, my dears, that that is the new
scientific way of explaining all these things, presentiments and dreams
and wraiths, and all that sort of thing. We have seen them before, and
remember them without being aware of it. So I said I'd never heard the
history of the room; but she said I _must_ have, and so must all the
people who felt as if some one was coming in by the window. And I said
that it was rather a curious thing they should _all_ forget they knew it,
and _all_ be reminded of it