“So I had to be content with that, though it was the first timethat there had ever been any secret between us. I gave her a check,and I never thought any more of the matter. It may have nothingto do with what came afterwards, but I thought it only right tomention it.
“Well, I told you just now that there is a cottage not far fromour house. There is just a field between us, but to reach it youhave to go along the road and then turn down a lane. Just beyondit is a nice little grove of Scotch firs, and I used to be very fondof strolling down there, for trees are always a neighborly kind ofthings. The cottage had been standing empty this eight months,and it was a pity, for it was a pretty two-storied place, with an oldfashionedporch and honeysuckle about it. I have stood many atime and thought what a neat little homestead it would make.
“Well, last Monday evening I was taking a stroll down that way,when I met an empty van coming up the lane, and saw a pile ofcarpets and things lying about on the grass-plot beside the porch.
It was clear that the cottage had at last been let. I walked past it,and wondered what sort of folk they were who had come to live sonear us. And as I looked I suddenly became aware that a face waswatching me out of one of the upper windows.
“I don’t know what there was about that face, Mr. Holmes,but it seemed to send a chill right down my back. I was somelittle way off, so that I could not make out the features, but therewas something unnatural and inhuman about the face. That wasthe impression that I had, and I moved quickly forwards to geta nearer view of the person who was watching me. But as I didso the face suddenly disappeared, so suddenly that it seemed tohave been plucked away into the darkness of the room. I stoodfor five minutes thinking the business over, and trying to analyzemy impressions. I could not tell if the face were that of a manor a woman. It had been too far from me for that. But its colorwas what had impressed me most. It was of a livid chalky white,and with something set and rigid about it which was shockinglyunnatural. So disturbed was I that I determined to see a littlemore of the new inmates of the cottage. I approached andknocked at the door, which was instantly opened by a tall, gauntwoman with a harsh, forbidding face.
“ ‘What may you be wantin’?’ she asked, in a Northern accent.
“ ‘I am your neighbor over yonder,’ said I, nodding towards myhouse. ‘I see that you have only just moved in, so I thought that ifI could be of any help to you in any——’
“ ‘Ay. we’ll just ask ye when we want ye,’ said she, and shut thedoor in my face. Annoyed at the churlish rebuff, I turned my backand walked home. All evening, though I tried to think of otherthings, my mind would still turn to the apparition at the windowand the rudeness of the woman. I determined to say nothingabout the former to my wife, for she is a nervous, highly strungwoman, and I had no wish that she would share the unpleasantimpression which had been produced upon myself. I remarkedto her, however, before I fell asleep, that the cottage was nowoccupied, to which she returned no reply.
“I am usually an extremely sound sleeper. It has been a standingjest in the family that nothing could ever wake me during thenight. And yet somehow on that particular night, whether it mayhave been the slight excitement produced by my little adventureor not I know not, but I slept much more lightly than usual. Halfin my dreams I was dimly conscious that something was goingon in the room, and gradually became aware that my wife haddressed herself and was slipping on her mantle and her bonnet.
My lips were parted to murmur out some sleepy words of surpriseor remonstrance at this untimely preparation, when suddenly myhalf-opened eyes fell upon her face, illuminated by the candlelight,and astonishment held me dumb. She wore an expressionsuch as I had never seen before—such as I should have thoughther incapable of assuming. She was deadly pale and breathing fast,glancing furtively towards the bed as she fastened her mantle, tosee if she had disturbed me. Then, thinking that I was still asleep,she slipped noiselessly from the room, and an instant later I hearda sharp creaking which could only come from the hinges of thefront door. I sat up in bed and rapped my knuckles against therail to make certain that I was truly awake. Then I took my watchfrom under the pillow. It was three in the morning. What on thisearth could my wife be doing out on the country road at three inthe morning?
“I had sat for about twenty minutes turning the thing over inmy mind and trying to find some possible explanation. The moreI thought, the more extraordinary and inexplicable did it appear. Iwas still puzzling over it when I heard the door gently close again,and her footsteps coming up the stairs.
“ ‘Where in the world have you been, Effie?’ I asked as sheentered.
“She gave a violent start and a kind of gasping cry when I spoke,and that cry and start troubled me more than all the rest, forthere was something indescribably guilty about them. My wifehad always been a woman of a frank, open nature, and it gave mea chill to see her slinking into her own room, and crying out andwincing when her own husband spoke to her.
“ ‘You awake, Jack!’ she cried, with a nervous laugh. ‘Why, Ithought that nothing could awake you.’
“ ‘Where have you been?’ I asked, more sternly.
“ ‘I don’t wonder that you are surprised,’ said she, and I couldsee that her fingers were trembling as she undid the fastenings ofher mantle. ‘Why, I never remember having done such a thing inmy life before. The fact is that I felt as though I were choking, andhad a perfect longing for a breath of fresh air. I really think that Ishould have fainted if I had not gone out. I stood at the door for afew minutes, and now I am quite myself again.’
“All the time that she was telling me this story she never oncelooked in my direction, and her voice was quite unlike her usualtones. It was evident to me that she was saying what was false.