iminal,
instead of merely boyish, or, in other words, crack-brained. As to
stopping the ghost, I could not stop the revolving pipe. I could do no
more than take away the light from the ghost-face. As for the owl on the
lower floor, when I came to it, could not do so much, for it was a great
big picture on board, done in some shining paint. I had nothing with
which I could smear it over, nor could I reach the head. As for stopping
the machine, that I dared not attempt to do, lest I should bring someone
up to me, from the works, wherever they were. Standing by the ghost of
the owl, hearing the chack-chack of the machine at intervals below me,
I became aware of voices in the room downstairs. When the chack-chack
stopped, I could hear men talking. I could hear what they said, for they
were talking in the ordinary tone of conversation. There was an open
space as it happened, all around the great pipe, where it passed through
the floor. I could peep through this into the room below, getting a
good sight of what was going on. It was very wicked of me, for there is
nothing quite so contemptible as an eavesdropper, but I could not resist
the temptation to look down. When once I had looked down I am ashamed to
say that I listened to what the men were saying. But first of all, I put
out my candle, lest anyone looking up should see the light through the
open space.

At the head of the table, there was a very handsome man, dressed all in
black, as though in mourning. His beauty was so great that afterwards
it passed into a proverb. Later in the year, when I saw this gentleman
nearly every day, I noticed that people (even those who did not know who
he was) would look after him when he passed them. I will say only this
about his handsomeness. It was a bodily kind of beauty, of colour
rather than of form; there was not much character in it. Had he lived,
I daresay he would have become ugly like the rest of his family, none of
whom, except his great-great-grandmother, was accounted much for looks.

Next to this handsome man, on the right, sat Mr. Jermyn, looking fifteen
years younger without his false beard. Then came a very black-looking
man, with a face all eyebrows. Then a soldier in uniform. Then a little,
wiry man, who jumped about as though excited--I could only see him when
he jumped: he had an unpleasant, saturnine face, which frightened me.
That, as far as I could see, was the whole company. When I first began
to listen, the m