FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   >>  
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
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   >>  



Top keywords:
window
 

feeling

 

history

 
reminded
 
maiden
 
hostess
 

nervous

 

admitted

 

disagree

 

beautifully


leaving
 
implored
 

pleasant

 

instance

 

consciously

 

remember

 

presentiments

 

dreams

 

wraiths

 

curious


forget
 

people

 

coming

 
things
 

supposed

 
childhood
 
forgotten
 

sensation

 

scientific

 

explaining


reflex

 

action

 
narrative
 
entering
 

abruptly

 
couldn
 

fashioned

 

narrow

 

country

 

arrived


Haunted

 

horrid

 
shudder
 

nights

 
recess
 
dreadfully
 

direction

 

confidence

 
extremely
 

thought