London's Heart: A NovelFarjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
General
London's Heart: A Novel
Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
London (England) -- Fiction
the dreadful stillness of the form she was dancing and singing to,
impressed her with horror, and she strove to be still, but could not.
Her struggles made her hysterical in her sleep--for Lily was sleeping
now--when suddenly peace stole upon her, and she was calm. But it was
not a comforting, refreshing peace; it was oppressive and painfully
intense. A man stood before her, with his eyes fixed steadily upon
hers. This man was one who, a few weeks before, had performed for a
benefit at the music-hall. He was an electro-biologist, and Lily had
been terrified by his performances. He had stolen away the wills of
some of the persons upon whom he had operated, and made them do this
and that at his pleasure; to pull down the moon; to drink water and
believe it wine, then soapsuds; to shiver with cold; to be oppressed
with heat; to dance; to stand still; to be transfixed like stone; to
form friendships, hatreds, and a hundred other things as strange and
inexplicable. She watched him do all these things. When the
performance was over, the man, coming off the stage, had noticed the
interest with which she had followed his experiments, and had said to
her, "You are a good subject; I could do with you as I please." She
was terrified at his words, and tried to move away from him, but could
not, and could not take her eyes from his face. Perceiving this, he
said to her, "Stretch out your arm," and she obeyed him; "Take my
hand," and she took it, surrendering her will entirely to him. At this
point they were interrupted, and she escaped him, thankfully; but for
hours afterwards she was dazed, and thought much of the incident,
dreading to meet the man again. Now he stood before her in her dreams,
and commanded her to rise; she had no power to resist him, and she
rose at his bidding. Here a diversion occurred by the word "Father!"
falling upon her ears. It was not fancy, being uttered rather loudly
by one of the speakers in the room, and it raised the image of her
father. The last time she saw him, she was quite a little child, and
then he was drunk, and was leaving her mother with words of anger on
his lips. As he turned his face, in her sleeping fancies, towards the
form of her mother lying dead before her, it suddenly changed to the
face of Alfred, and she was pained and grieved at the likeness between
father and son. Thus far the running commentary of her dreams.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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