Blackwood, Algernon

Date: 2023-03-07
| realising that she was simply surrounding herself with mental
| buffers—saying ordinary things to prevent herself thinking of
| extra-ordinary things.
Chapter: THE EMPTY HOUSE


Date: 2023-03-07
| Shorthouse fumbled a long time with the key before he could fit
| it into the lock at all. For a moment, if truth were told, they
| both hoped it would not open, for they were a prey to various
| unpleasant emotions as they stood there on the threshold of their
| ghostly adventure. Shorthouse, shuffling with the key and hampered
| by the steady weight on his arm, certainly felt the solemnity of the
| moment. It was as if the whole world—for all experience seemed at
| that instant concentrated in his own consciousness—were listening
| to the grating noise of that key. A stray puff of wind wandering down
| the empty street woke a momentary rustling in the trees behind them,
| but otherwise this rattling of the key was the only sound audible;
| and at last it turned in the lock and the heavy door swung open
| and revealed a yawning gulf of darkness beyond
Chapter: THE EMPTY HOUSE