I was awakened suddenly, and found myself sitting up in bed, staring
wildly about the strange room. The house was breathlessly still. My
heart pounded against my ribs, the blood beat in my ears. I was
oppressed with a nameless terror, an anguished sense that something
had happened, something irremediable. The feeling was so strong that
my throat closed chokingly.

I am particular in thus setting it down, because it was an
experience that all of us under that roof had to undergo. You had to
fight it, shut your mind against it, oppose your will to it like a
stone wall, refuse to let it master you. Then, as if defeated, it
would go as suddenly, as inexplicably, as it had come.

That's what I did then, more by instinct than reason. But I was
exhausted when I finally got back to sleep.




CHAPTER III

THE DEAR LITTLE GOD!


When we went over Hynds House the next morning and took stock, I
began to entertain very, very peculiar feelings toward Great-Aunt
Sophronisba Scarlett, who, it would appear, had given me a white
elephant which I could neither hire out for its keep, nor yet sell
out of hand. I had to live in Hynds House, and Hynds House as it
stood wasn't to be lived in.