anthemums are in full bloom. I must positively run up for a day before they are gone.
As I light a cigar after breakfast, I happened to glance over at Arthur and was struck by a change in him. For he has changed. I ask myself if my presence has not done him good. On my arrival he seemed without energy, almost torpid, but now he is becoming restless. He wanders about the room continually and sometimes shows a disposition to talk.
Yes, I am sure he is better. I am going for my walk now, and I feel convinced that in a week's time I shall have him accompanying me.
FIVE o'clock. Dusk is falling. O God! What has come over me? Am I the same man that went out of this house three hours ago? And what has happened! . . . .
I had a splendid walk, and was striding homeward in a fine glow. But as I turned the corner and came in sight of the house, it was as if I looked at death itself. I could hardly drag myself up the stairs, and when I peered into the shadowy chamber, and saw the man hunched up on the couch, with his eyes fixed intently on my face, I could have screamed like a woman. I wanted to fly, to rush out into the clear cold air and run—to run and never come back! But I controlled myself, forced my feet to carry me to my room.
There is a weight of hopelessness at my heart. The darkness is advancing, swallowing up everything, but I have not the will to light the gas. . . .
Now there is a flicker in the front room. I am a fool; I must pull myself together. Arthur is lighting up, and downstairs I can hear the thumping that announces dinner. . . .
It is a queer thought that comes to me now, but it is odd I have not noticed it before. We are about to sit down to our evening meal. Arthur will eat practically nothing for he has no appetite. Yet he remains stout. It cannot be healthy fat, but even at that it seems to me that a man who eats as little as he does would become a living skeleton.
OCTOBER 5.—Positively, I must see a doctor about myself, or soon I shall be a nervous wreck. I am acting like a child. Last night I lost all control and played the coward.
I had gone to bed early, tired out with a hard day's work. It was raining again, and as I lay in bed I watched the little rivulets trickling down the panes. Lulled by the sighing of the wind among the leaves, I fell asleep.
I awoke (how long afterward I cannot say) to feel a cold hand laid on my arm. For a moment I lay paralyzed with terror. I would have cried aloud, but I had no voice. At last I managed to sit up, to shake the hand off. I reached for the matches and lighted the gas.
It was Arthur who stood by my bed—Arthur wrapped in his eternal reddish-brown dressing-gown. He was excited. His blue face has a yellow tinge, and his eyes gleamed in the light.
"Listen!" he whispered.
I listened but I heard nothing.
"Don't you hear it?" he gasped, and he pointed upward.
"Upstairs?" I stammered. "Is there somebody upstairs?"
I strained my ears, and as last I fancied I could hear a fugitive sound like the light tapping of footsteps.
"It must be somebody walking about up there," I suggested.
But at these words Arthur seemed to stiffen. The excitement died out of his face.
"No!" he cried in a sharp rasping voice. "No! It is nobody walking about up there!"
And he fled into his room.
For a long time I lay trembling, afraid to move. But at last, fearing for Arthur, I got up and crept to his door. He was lying on the couch, which his face in the moonlight, apparently asleep.
OCTOBER 6.—I had a talk with Arthur today. Yesterday I could not bring myself to speak of the previous night's happening, but all of this nonsense must be cleared away.
We were in the library. A fire was burning in the grate, and Arthur had his feet on the fender. The slippers he wears, by the way, are as objectionable to me as his dressing-gown. They are felt slippers, old and worn, and frayed around the edges as if they had been gnawed by rats. I cannot imagine why he does not get a new pair.
"Say, old man," I began abruptly, "do you own this house?"
He nodded.
"Don't you rent any of it?"
"Downstairs—to Mrs. Harlan."
"But upstairs?"
He hesitated, then shook his head.
"No, it's inconvenient. There's only a peculiar way to get upstairs."
I was struck by this.
"By jove! you're right. Where's the staircase?"
He looked me full in the eyes.
"Don't you remember seeing a bolted door in a corner of your room? The staircase runs from that door."
I did remember it, and somehow the memory made me uncomfortable. I said no more and decided not to refer to what had happened that night. It occurred to me that Arthur may have been walking in his sleep.
OCTOBER 8.—When I went for my walk on Tuesday I dropped in and saw Dr. Lorraine, who is an old friend. He expressed some surprise at my run-down condition and wrote me a prescription.
I am planning to go home next week. How pleasant it will be to walk in my garden and listen to Mrs. O'Brien singing in the kitchen!
OCTOBER 9.—Perhaps I had better postpone my trip. I casually mentioned it to Arthur this morning.
He was lying relaxed on the sofa, but when I spoke of leaving he sat up as straight as a bolt. His eyes fairly blazed.
"No, Tom, don't go!" There was terror in his voice, and such pleading that wrung my heart.
"You've stood it alone here ten years," I protested. "And now—"
"It's not that," he said. "But if you go, you will never come back."
"IS that all the faith you have in me?"
"I've got faith, Tom. But if you go, you'll never come back."
I decided that I must humor the vagaries of a sick man.
"All right," I agreed. "I'll not go. Anyway, not for some time."
OCTOBER 12.—What is it that hangs over this house like a cloud? For I can no longer deny that there is something—something indescribably oppressive. It seems to pervade the whole neighborhood.
Are all the houses on this block vacant? If not, why do I never see children playing in the street? Why are passers-by so rare? And why, when from the front window I do catch a glimpse of one, is he hastening away as fast as possible?
I am feeling blue again. I know that I need a change, and this morning I told Arthur definitely that I was going.
To my surprise he made no objection. In fact, he murmured a word of assent and smiled. He smiled as he smiled in the library that morning when he pointed at the Aster Tripolium. And I don't like that smile. Anyway, it is settled. I shall go next week, Thursday, the 19th.
OCTOBER 13.—I had a strange dream last night. Or was it a dream? It was so vivid. . . . All day long I have been seeing it over and over again.
In my dream I thought that I was lying there in my bed. The moon was shining brightly into the room, so that each piece of furniture stood
