doors opened, and a dark figure passed through the room towards the
opposite door. Everything that could be called ghostly, ceased
instantaneously. The arm vanished. The company breathed more freely.
Lady Emily, who had been on the point of going into hysterics, recovered
herself, and overcame the still lingering impulse: she felt as if she had
awaked from a momentary aberration of the intellect. Mr. Arnold proceeded
to light the candles, saying, in a righteous tone:
“I think we have had enough of this nonsense.”
When the candles were lighted, there was no one to be seen in the room
besides themselves. Several, Hugh amongst them, had observed the figure;
but all had taken it for part of the illusive phantasmagoria. Hugh would
have concluded it a variety of his vision of the former night; but others
had seen it as well as he.
There was no renewal of the experiments that night. But all were in a very
unhealthy state of excitement. Vague fear, vague wonder, and a certain
indescribable oppression, had dimmed for the time all the clearer vision,
and benumbed all the nobler faculties of the soul. Lady Emily was affected
the most. Her eyes looked scared; there was a bright spot on one cheek
amidst deathly paleness; and she seemed very unhappy. Mrs. Elton became
alarmed, and this brought her back to a more rational condition. She
persuaded Lady Emily to go to bed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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