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So then Laurie sat andhe looked round him tranquilly without a touch of that terror that had seized hi-room at home

If all this were true--and he repeated to himself that he kneas true--these presences were about hihtened?

He looked carefully into the dark corner behind hile between the curtained s, at his piano, glossy and loom, at the door half-open into his bedroom All was quiet here, shut off from the hum of Fleet Street; circuhtened? Why, as there to frighten him? These presences were natural and normal; even as a Catholic he believed in them And if they manifested themselves, as there to fear in that?

He looked steadily and serenely; and as he looked, like the kindling of a fire, there rose within hie exaltation

"Amy," he whispered

But there was no movement or hint

Laurie smiled a little, wearily He felt tired; he would sleep a little He beat out his pipe, crossed his feet before the fire, and closed his eyes

III

There followed that sulfs of sleep that provides perhaps the most exquisite physical sensation known to man, as the veils fall thicker and softer every instant, and the consciousness gathers itself inwards fro hi, and is able to regard its own comfort All this he remembered perfectly half an hour later; but there followed in his ap in which self loses itself before e to reality

But that into which he eether frorotesque fancy and juhts, of thin shadows of truth and echoes from the common world where most of us find ourselves in sleep

His dreaht, but no longer in his chair Instead, he stood in the very center of the floor, or at least poised solance, without turning, all that the room contained He directed his attention--for it was this, rather than sight, through which he perceived--to the piano, the chiffonier, the chairs, the two doors, the curtained s; and finally, with scarcely even a touch of surprise, to hiarded hi even in that instant that he had never before seen himself with closed eyes