The House of Souls

ng in the direction of the bureau. For more than a week he had succeeded in keeping away from the 'Memoirs,' and he cherished hopes of a complete self-reforma

his head, and thought Clarke getting queer, and on this particular evening Clarke was making an

ers to see

seen you for many months; I should think nearly a year. Come in, co

er curious matter that has been brought under my notice of late. I am afraid you will think it all rather absurd when I tell

of the 'Memoirs to prove t

ive you my advice, to the best of my a

encourages these fancies, Clarke, and I dare say I should have thought a page of small type, but I was cut short by a beggar who had come behind me, and was making the usual appeals. Of course I looked round, and this beggar turned out to be what was left of an old friend of mine, a man named Herbert. I asked him how he had come to such a wretched pass, and he told me. We walked up and down one of those long dark Soho streets, and there I listened to his story. He said he had married a beautiful gir

I suppose the poor fellow had made an imprudent

lliers told Clarke the sto

street; the houses are old enough to be mean and dreary, but not old enough to be quaint. As far as I could see most of them are let in lodgings, furnished and unfurnished, and almost every door has three bells to it. Here and there the ground floors have been made into shops of the commonest kind; it's a dismal street in every way. I found Number 20 was to let, and I went to the agent

s paused fo

l of horror; I felt my teeth grinding as I put my hand on the door, and when I went in, I thought I should have fallen fainting to the floor. However, I pulled myself together, and stood against the end wall, wondering what on earth there could be about the room to make my limbs tremble, and my heart beat as if I were at the hour of death. In one corner there was a pile of newspapers littered about on the floor, and I began looking at them; they were papers of three or four years ago, some of them half torn, and some crumpled as if they had been used for packing. I turned the whole pile over, and amongst them I found a curious drawing; I will show it you presently. But I couldn't stay in the room; I felt it was overpowering me. I was thankful to come out, safe and sound, into the open air. People stared at me as I walked along the street, and one man said I was drunk. I was staggering about from one side of the pavement to the other, and it was as much as I could do to take the key back t

story, is it?' sa

at is th

cian as to the cause of death; but, after all, it is conceivable that the facts may be explained in a straightforward manner. As to your own sensations, when you went to see the house, I would suggest that they were due to a vivid imagination; you

woman; the woman whom he ma

ating himself on having successfully kept up the character of adv

said at last, and put his hand in his

. You remember my saying that I had found a rather curious sketch among

some. In spite of himself Clarke felt inquisitive; he bent forward on his chair as Villiers painfully undid the string, and unfolded the ou

care, and by a true artist, for the woman's soul looked out of the eyes, and the lips were parted with a strange smile. Clarke gazed still at the face; it brought to his memory one summer evening long ago; he saw again the long lovely valley, the river winding between the hills, the meadows and the cornfields, the dull red sun, and the cold white mist rising from the water. He he

e said at last. His vo

woman whom He

with the doctor, nor at her terrible awakening, nor when she lay grinning on the bed. Whatever it was, the glance that came from those eyes, the smile on the full lips, or the expression of the whole face, Clarke shu

t is the matter? You a

hair, as Clarke fell back with a groan

these attacks. Pour me out a little wine; thanks, t

llen sketch and turned it

ied it as being a portrait of Herbert's wife,

. I don't think I quite catch your meaning. What

e back. Didn't I tell you her na

there could be n

the story I have told you to-night, and in the part this

u must give me time to think it over; I may be able to help you or I may not. Must you be g