English fiction -- 19th century; Short stories, English
At half-past nine I went to an "At Home" at Professor Drayton's. As a
rule, "At Homes" are dull; but I had a reason for going to this one. The
professor had a very pretty daughter, and I was vain enough to think
that my presence was welcome to her. In fact, we were great friends,
and I had not been at the house a quarter of an hour before I had
forgotten all my worries with my unruly Astral Body, and was sitting
by Bessie in the small drawing room, enjoying myself immensely.
Suddenly--mysteriously--I felt something like a violent push. Bessie
vanished; the drawing room vanished; and I found myself in the High,
standing in dripping rain, without a hat or coat. I stood still in
bewilderment. What had happened? A moment later the proctor was upon
me. I gave my name and college in a mechanical way, and he passed on,
leaving me still standing in the rain. What had happened? Then it
flashed across my mind. I understood its threats. It had projected me!
I woke up next morning, determined to have it out with it. I found, as
I expected, that it had waited till I was asleep; then it slunk in and
united without my knowing it. I went and paid my fine, and then, not
waiting to breakfast, I proceeded to project it. It wouldn't move! I
tried again and again. I had no more power over it than a child. I knew
it was there; but I could not move it an inch. In wrath, I jumped up,
seized my cap, and started for the rajah's rooms. The rogue saw what
I was up to. I give you my word, I had not reached the door when it
projected me most viciously, and I landed down in the Parks.
I was not to be beaten. I came back to college at a run, and made
straight for the rajah's rooms. It was on the lookout for me. As I
ran by my oak, which I had to pass, it rushed out on me, united, and
projected me back again to Magdalen Bridge. This happened three times.
Then I sat down in the Parks, just where I dropped, and acknowledged to
myself that I was in a pretty fix.
I had a fearful week of it. Of course, wherever I was, it could unite
at once by just thinking of me; and, directly it had united, it used,
I believe out of pure malice, to project me somewhere where I did not
want to go. It was lucky for me that it was new to the business; its
powers were as yet very undeveloped, and, consequently, it did not
carry very far. If it could, I am sure it would have sent me to the
Antipodes; but as it was, I never went further than the University
boat-house--a pretty tidy step on a bad morning. Still, it was
improving; and I felt that I must act at once if I did not want to be
a permanent wanderer on the face of the earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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