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No spirits, no ghosts Only the clean cooled air of the house as it cah the vents with the soft sound of a low breeze

"He's not with us," said Lestat quietly

"You know that for certain?" I asked

"No, but you do," he replied

He was right

I led the way up the curving staircase I felt sharply that for better or worse, I would now have Lestat to myself

Chapter6

6

THE UPPER HALL HAD three doors on the right wall, and, due to the staircase rising against the left wall, only two on that side The first door on the left led into my apartment, which o rooms deep, and the last door on the left led to the bedroom on the rear of the house

Lestat asked if he ht see any rooms, and I told him that he could see ht were uninhabited right now --one belonging to land, and the other always reserved for his sister Brittany -- and were kind of fancy showpieces, each with its ornate nineteenth-century four-poster bed, ritual baldachin, velvet or taffeta hangings and coh fancy chairs and couches, much like those in Aunt Queen's bedroom downstairs

In the third room, which was off limits, there hovered my mother, Patsy, whom I hoped ould not see

Each marble old -- had its distinct detail, and there were gilded e proud portraits of ancestors -- William and his wife, pretty Grace; Gravier and his wife, Blessed Alice; and Thorandmother, whose real name had been Rose

The ceiling lights were gasoliers, with brass arms and cut crystal cups for their bulbs, more ordinary yet more atmospheric than the sumptuous crystal chandeliers of the first floor

As to the last bedroom on the left, it too was open and neatened and fine, but it belonged tosolish at a university on the West Coast He had always cooperated with the four-poster bed and its ruffles of blue silk, his desk was clean and bare and waiting for him and his walls, very much like mine, were lined with books His fireplace, like ant and orn

"The guests were always on the right side of the hallway," I explained, "in the old hotel days, and here in Nash's roorandparents slept -- Sweetheart and Pops Nash and I spent the last year or so reading Dickens to each other I tread anxiously with his have worked out "