登陆注册
5159400000004

第4章

"My son-in-law has a striking case in his own recent experience.He actually knows a man who was going to sail on the Lusitania, and his greatest friend on earth, a soldier who fell on the Maine, appeared to him and advised him not to do so.Tom's acquaintance could not say that he heard words uttered, but he certainly recognized his dead friend as he stood by his bedside, and he received into his mind a clear warning before the vision disappeared.Is that so, Tom?""Exactly so, sir.And Jack Thwaites - that was the name of the man in New York - told four others about it, and three took his tip and didn't sail.The fourth went; but he wasn't drowned.He came out all right.""The departed are certainly proved to appear in their own ghostly persons - nay, they often have been seen to do so," admitted Travers."But I will never believe they are at our beck and call, to bang tambourines or move furniture.We cannot ring up the dead as we ring up the living on a telephone.The idea is insufferable and indecent.Neither can anybody be used as a mouth-piece in that way, or tell us the present position or occupation and interests of a dead man - or what he smokes, or how his liquor tastes.Such ideas degrade our impressions of life beyond the grave.They are, if I may say so, disgustingly anthropomorphic.How can we even take it for granted that our spirits will retain a human form and human attributes after death?""It would be both weak - minded and irreligious to attempt to get at these things, no doubt," declared Colonel Vane.

"And they make confusion worse confounded by saying that evil spirits pretend sometimes to hoodwink us by posing as good spirits.Now, that's going too far," said Henry Lennox.

"But your own ghost, Sir Walter?" asked Fayre-Michell."It is a curious fact that most really ancient houses have some such addition.Is it a family spectre? Is it fairly well authenticated? Does it reign in a particular spot of house or garden? I ask from no idle curiosity.It is a very interesting subject if approached in a proper spirit, as the Psychical Research Society, of which I am a member, does approach it.""I am unprepared to admit that we have a ghost at all," repeated SirWalter."Ancient houses, as you say, often get some legend tacked on to them, and here a garden walk, or there a room, or passage, is associated with something uncanny and contrary to experience.This is an old Tudor place, and has been tinkered and altered in successive generations.We have one room at the eastern end of the great corridor which always suffered from a bad reputation.Nobody has ever seen anything in our time, and neither my father nor grandfather ever handed down any story of a personal experience.It is a bedroom, which you shall see, if you care to do so.One very unfortunate and melancholy thing happened in it.That was some twelve years ago, when Mary was still a child - two years after my dear wife died.""Tell us nothing that can cause you any pain, Walter," said Ernest Travers.

"It caused me very acute pain at the time.Now it is old history and mercifully one can look back with nothing but regret.One must, however, mention an incident in my father's time, though it has nothing to do with my own painful experience.However, that is part of the story - if story it can be called.A death occurred in the Grey Room when I was a child.Owing to the general vague feeling entertained against it, we never put guests there, and so long ago as my father's day it was relegated to a store place and lumber-store.But one Christmas, when we were very full, there came quite unexpectedly on Christmas Eve an aunt of my father - an extraordinary old character who never did anything that might be foreseen.She had never come to the family reunion before, yet appeared on this occasion, and declared that, as this was going to be her last Christmas on earth, she had felt it right to join the clan - my father being the head of the family.Her sudden advent strained our resources, I suppose, but she herself reminded us of the Grey Room, and, on hearing that it was empty, insisted on occupying it.The place is a bedroom, and my father, who personally entertained no dislike or dread of it, raised not the least objection to the strong - minded old lady's proposal.She retired, and was found dead on Christmas morning.She had not gone to bed, but was just about to do so, apparently, when she had fallen down and died.She was eighty-eight, had undergone a lengthy coach journey from Exeter,and had eaten a remarkably good dinner before going to bed.Her maid was not suspected, and the doctor held her end in no way unusual.It was certainly never associated with anything but natural causes.Indeed, only events of much later date served to remind me of the matter.Then one remembered the spoiled Christmas festivities and the callous and selfish anger of myself and various other young people that our rejoicings should be spoiled and Christmas shorn of all its usual delights.

同类推荐
  • 经穴汇解

    经穴汇解

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 陀罗尼门诸部要目

    陀罗尼门诸部要目

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 十不二门文心解

    十不二门文心解

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Rosamund,Queen of the Lombards

    Rosamund,Queen of the Lombards

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Andromache

    Andromache

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 凰令凤啸

    凰令凤啸

    王爷红杏出了墙,还想把她往回抢?送你两个字!做梦!咱也是有行情滴,敌国皇帝呵护备至,墙角早就被撬倒。想要让她再滚回做皇妃?对不起,本人已死,有事请烧纸……【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 豪门隐婚:惹上腹黑男神

    豪门隐婚:惹上腹黑男神

    万众瞩目的婚礼上,他对她抱歉一笑,“我不能娶你。”放下婚戒,他弃她而去,以爱之名的阴谋,就此开始……陆念琛对夏以沫,是温柔的残酷,将她的所有悉数尽毁,让她的世界只剩下他,最后,他便成了她的世界。
  • 四符

    四符

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 春风又度玉门关

    春风又度玉门关

    万里黄沙,落日孤烟。因为一则极其诱人的宝藏传闻,浅浅姑娘被永远不记得吃药的那人拐入了大漠。于是乎,剧情全面崩坏,旅途全程高能……怪力乱神迷糊女与病弱腹黑轮椅公子的恋爱养成。宝藏愤愤不平:我呢?说好的给我加戏份呢?!
  • 郎心如意,老婆乖乖入怀

    郎心如意,老婆乖乖入怀

    “厉先生,麻烦您让让!我还赶着去约会呢?”厉少覃翘起嘴角冷笑着捏住穆小久的下巴,“约会?五年不见,这就是你给我的见面礼吗?”穆小久的心紧紧揪起酸涩掠过,扬起小脸妩媚一笑:“请问你是我的谁?你,没有权利限制我的人身自由。”五年前,他第一次闯入她的生活,让她无依无靠的生活有了一丝波澜。明明只是救人而已,却没想到救的是一头狼。他轻轻的一句:“穆小久,我只要你,我厉少覃的世界里只有你!”就已经让她缴械投降。
  • 妃要自由:王妃很抢手

    妃要自由:王妃很抢手

    王妃要自由同王爷约法三章:我不管你,你不管我王妃时尔搞笑,时尔腹黑,时尔装傻,时尔呆萌。。。。。那就要看王妃遇上什么人啦但她最重要的是,我需要自由,自由路上,人不惹我,我不惹人,人若惹急了我,嘿嘿。。。。。我也是心狠手辣的,要不,试试这是本妃第一次写作,希望大家我多支持啦,多给意见,多收藏。。。那都是动力啦。开始在文章里见吧。
  • 采来一朵破碎的云

    采来一朵破碎的云

    梦想,放飞过,也破碎过。在诗的海洋,有哭,有笑,有恨,有爱。只想把这一段心路,用诗,记录。
  • 不朽的北宋风俗画卷:《清明上河图》

    不朽的北宋风俗画卷:《清明上河图》

    希望本书能为弘扬中华五千年优秀传统文化、增强各民族团结、构建社会主义和谐社会尽一份绵薄之力,也坚信我们的中华民族一定能够早日实现伟大复兴!
  • 起一心精进念佛七期规式

    起一心精进念佛七期规式

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 侏罗纪:恐龙开始复活(青少年科学探索营)

    侏罗纪:恐龙开始复活(青少年科学探索营)

    《侏罗纪:恐龙开始复活》一书为读者详细讲述了梁龙、腕龙、雷龙、鲨齿龙、角鼻龙等众多恐龙的体态特征与生活习性,阅读本书,有助于广大青少年读者走进恐龙的世界去进一步了解恐龙的相关知识。