He went towards the door. He took the handle very gently, and very softly then he opened it.
Beyond was darkness. He saw the empty passage, the edge of the banisters where the great hall yawned below, and, dimly, the outline of the Alpine photograph and the stuffed deer’s head upon the wall. And then he dropped upon his knees and opened wide his arms to something that came in upon uncertain, viewless feet. All the young winds and flowers and dews of dawn passed with it…filling him to the brim…covering closely his breast and eyes and lips. There clung to him all the small beginnings of life that cannot stand alone…the little helpless hands and arms that have no confidence…and when the wealth of tears and love that flooded his heart seemed to break upon the frontiers of some mysterious yet impossible fulfilment, he rose and went with curious small steps towards the window to taste the cooling, misty air of that other dark Emptiness that waited so patiently there above the entire world. He drew the sash up. The air felt soft and tender as though there were somewhere children in it too—children of stars and flowers, of mists and wings and music, all that the Universe contains unborn and tiny.… And when at length he turned again the door was closed. The room was empty of any life but that which lay so wonderfully blessed within himself. And this, he felt, had marvelously increased and multiplied.…
Sleep then came back to him, and in the morning he left the house before the others were astir, pleading some overlooked engagement. For he had seen Ghosts indeed, but yet no ghost that he could talk about with others round an open fire.
Table of Contents
COPYRIGHT INFO
A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
THE MEGAPACK SERIES
SKELETON LAKE
SMITH: AN EPISODE IN A LODGING-HOUSE
A SUSPICIOUS GIFT
THE EMPTY HOUSE
THE LISTENER
MAY DAY EVE
CARLTON’S DRIVE
IF THE CAP FITS—
THE MAN WHO PLAYED UPON THE LEAF
OLD CLOTHES
THE ECCENTRICITY OF SIMON PARNACUTE
THE GOLDEN FLY
THE TRANSFER
THE ATTIC
THE GLAMOUR OF THE SNOW
SAND
H.S.H.
A DESERT EPISODE
BY WATER
THE GOBLIN’S COLLECTION
A BIT OF WOOD
AN EGYPTIAN HORNET
CAIN’S ATONEMENT
THE OTHER WING
THE DANCE OF DEATH
THE GARDEN OF SURVIVAL
A CASE OF EAVESDROPPING
CLAIRVOYANCE
The Second Algernon Blackwood Megapack: 28 Classic Tales of the Supernatural Page 57
