s head. He looked painfully abashed.

"Then, Murchison, I am ashamed to say I broke down, suddenly,
unaccountably, in a way I should have thought wholly impossible to me. I
struck out with my hands to thrust the thing away. It pressed more
closely to me. The pressure, the contact became unbearable to me. I
shouted out for Pitting. I--I believe I must have cried--'Help.'"

"He came, of course?"

"Yes, with his usual soft, unemotional quiet. His calm--its opposition
to my excitement of disgust and horror--must, I suppose, have irritated
me. I was not myself, no, no!"

He stopped abruptly. Then--

"But I need hardly tell you that," he added, with most piteous irony.

"And what did you say to Pitting?"

"I said that he should have been quicker. He begged my pardon. His cold
voice really maddened me, and I burst out into some foolish,
contemptible diatribe, called him a machine, taunted him, then--as I
felt that loathsome thing nestling once more to me,--begged him to
assist me, to stay with me, not to leave me alone--I meant in the
company of my tormentor. Whether he was frightened, or whether he was
angry at my unjust and violent manner and speech a moment before, I
don't know. In any case he answered that he was engaged as a butler, and
not to sit up all night with people. I suspect he thought I had taken
too much to drink. No doubt that was it. I believe I swore at him as a
coward--I! This morning he said he wished to leave my service. I gave
him a month's wages, a good character as a butler, and sent him off at
once."

"But the night? How did you pass it?"

"I sat up all night."

"Where? In your bedroom?"

"Yes--with the door open--to let it go."

"You felt that it stayed?"

"It never left me for a moment, but it did not touch me again. When it
was light I took a bath, lay down for a little while, but did not close
my eyes. After breakfast I had the explanation with Pitting and paid
him. Then I came up here. My nerves were in a very shattered condition.
Well, I sat down, tried to write, to think. But the silence was broken
in the most abominable manner."

"How?"

"By the murmur of that appalling voice, that voice of a love-sick idiot,
sickly but determined. Ugh!"

He shuddered in every limb. Then he pulled himself together, assumed,
with a self-conscious effort, his most determined, most aggressive,
manner, and added:

"I couldn't stand that. I had come to the end of my tether; so I sprang
up, or