Transcript

Chapter VIII · Sinister House

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Chapter eight of Sinister House by Leland Hall. This LibriVox recording is in the
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public domain. Read by Ben Tucker. Chapter eight change my opinions, as
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if I wouldn't have been glad enough to change them. Heaven knows, I
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wasn't set up about having seen a ghost. Why if only his telephoning to
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New York could have laid it and have averted the suffering and torment of the
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next two nights, I'd have recanted, I'd have denied myself. I'd have
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said my name is Jones while all the time at Smith. But of course
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I did not know what was in store for all of us, and it
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wouldn't have done any good even if I'd said I was Jesse James. Believe
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me. I was miserable, that's all, just plain miserable and sort of
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loco with it. However, I won't hold up the rest of the story
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telling you what a rotten night I had the next two or to make it
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look like I was going to say thirty cents, but I guess I mean
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like a ten dollar gold piece. I do remember, though, that Annette
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was awfully anxious about me, and since the more I tried to explain the
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more anxious she grew. I just subsided, but we kept the lights going
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until after two. I liked the lights because while they were going, I
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didn't have such terrible pictures of what Julia might be going through. It must
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have had its comical side, Annette stealing an anxious look at me every two
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or three minutes, I looking mournfully at her, and neither of us saying
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much. After we put out the lights, we both lay in our beds
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without moving until about four. I heard Annette get up and go to the
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window. Haven't you been asleep, dear? I whispered, what's the matter.
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I can't sleep for worrying. You've frightened the life out of me,
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Pierre. I don't know whether your mind's all right or not. You sound
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crazy. You looked wild tonight. You ought to see a doctor. And
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Julia maybe she's crazy too. I don't think you ought to go there anymore.
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But she needs me and you too. She and Eric are I sprately
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afflicted. We mustn't go back on them. We mustn't withhold anything of comfort
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or strength to her. Don't be afraid. Let me remind you that it
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wasn't pleasant. I cannot remember much that happened the next day. I remember
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that it was fair that the sun shone with a golden radiance in which no
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ghost could survive. Giles was at breakfast with us, though I found out
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later that he had not gone to bed at all. I tried to get
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him to come with my wife, the children and me, but he would
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not be prevailed upon, and I dare say we had a jolly or time
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without him. We had a picnic somewhere in away from the river. We
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did not take the highway that ran past Eric's house. It was near a
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hay mow, I think, against the side of which I slept in the
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warm sun for a couple of hours. If Annette read to Bobby at all,
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it was from little men, or it may have been little women.
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Though I passed a not too melancholy day. As we started home before sundown,
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I began to feel depressed. We picked up doctor Gresham by the roadside
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on the way back. He was the only physician in Foresby, and his
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card broke and down out in the country. I remember we went a mile
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out of our way to take him to his house, and one or the
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other of us said half seriously that he hoped there be no sickness in the
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outlying parts of the community. That night arrived home, Felicia told us that
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Missus Greer had telephoned in the afternoon to ask us over for dinner that evening.
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It was a trial. I did not want to go, and my
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wife was all four telephoning a flat refusal, but remembering the straits Julia was
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in, I felt it would be nothing short of treachery to go back on
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her. So Annette and I bathed, kissed the children good night, and
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ran over in the ford. The night was unseasonably cold and clear as crystal,
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but with no moon and only a few stars, a real darkness lay
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over the land. We had nothing to say to each other as we spun
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along the flat highway. Eric greeted us, and we found Giles seated before
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the grate in the living room, in which there was a bright yellow fire
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of kennel coal the only light in the room. We asked him how he
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had spent the day, but he preferred not to tell us until later.
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And while we were waiting for Julia to come down, Eric led me out
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on the veranda over the cliff, just to see how black and mysterious.
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The river looked down in its bed. There was no trace of twilight in
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the western sky, but there was a single bright star there, and looking
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far below, I could see its reflection in the invisible water. My foot
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kicked against a stone on the veranda floor. Absent mindedly, I picked it
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up and leaned over the veranda rail let it drop from loosened fingers. The
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ping of its hitting the boulders below and a faint splash were just audible in
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the otherwise holy, silent night. Why was it that, in the midst
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of such tranquility I had a sudden sense of evils being done? I straightened
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and turned round sharply, man's natural physical reaction to the spur of a sudden
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unpleasant thought. Eric was just on the point of speaking. He had actually
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said a word or two which I missed. I think he meant to unburden
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himself of let it go. I have no proof my sudden movement put an
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end to it, anyhow, What's the matter, Pierre, he asked me
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quietly, Nothing, I responded. The side of the house was almost blotted
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out in the darkness, but looking restlessly toward the north, I saw a
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faint colorless glow. It seemed to come from a window in a bow that
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was built out from the side the veranda did not run that far. Against
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the uncertain light, I saw something moving, swinging slowly. It was a
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shutter, and as there was hardly a breath of air stirring, the movement
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struck me as queer and mysterious. I called Eric's attention to it. He
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started towards it, and I followed his vague form. I wonder, He
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said, what is loosen to that shutter? That is a window in the
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room to which Julia has taken her strange aversion. We went to the end
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of the veranda and he leaned out, trying to touch the shutter, but
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could not reach it. There's some one in the room, I suggested.
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That cannot be, He replied, the doors always locked. You know you
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heard no one is allowed to go into that room. But the light,
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I said, there's no light, look for yourself. True enough, there
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was no longer any light. Eric lit a match or two, which he
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held out as far towards the window as he could reach, and in the
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feeble glow of which he made out to his own satisfaction that the bolt on
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the shutter had not broken or rusted away. Julia must have sent some one
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in there to day, he concluded. At that moment, someone stepped out
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on the veranda from the living room. It was Julia herself. Turning we
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saw her one side all white and bright, the other black and invisible.
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She hesitated a moment, and then came quickly towards us. Eric, She
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cried, what are you doing? She had a fit of coughing. Eric
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took her by the shoulders and marched her back. Whence she had come,
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I'm doing nothing, he replied, to alarm you. You are not to
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come out of doors without a rap, my dear, you will have pneumonia.
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Pierre discovered that the shudder to the forbidden room is open, and eyes
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I was looking at it and wondering who could have opened it. By that
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time we were going into the house again. Julia had lighted all the candles
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in the living room. It was warm and pleasant and should have been cheerful.
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But turning round from latching the window through which we had come in,
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I caught a look of mingled incredulity and fear on Julia's face. No one
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has been in that room, she was whispering to her husband. The bolt
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must have rusted away. The bolt's all right, he said, but you'll
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have to let me into the place. Deer Eric, I beg of you
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not to night, Not to night. I don't feel well, you know.
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Humor me, dearest, promise not to night, silly girl. Not
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to night then, or any night till you wish it. He stooped as
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if to kiss her, but she turned abruptly from him and went to chat
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with my wife, and I saw his arms fall to his side in a
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gesture of hopelessness. Later, while we were at dinner, I could not
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keep my eyes from the blue velvet curtain on the wall opposite me. It
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hung motionless, obscure in the candle light, apparently without significance to at least
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apart from the consciousness of the others in the room. Only when the old
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servant passed it on her rounds of service at the table did I see it
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stir. But I knew there was a doubly locked door behind it, and
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that in the room behind the door there was something. Julia had caused a
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fear. I could not but ask myself again and again who or what had
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opened the shutter I could not but wonder if the swaying of that thing I
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had so dimly perceived in the outdoor darkness were not an evil omen In spite
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of my uneasiness, the dinner progressed smoothly. I dare say, I ate
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my share of the good hot food too, no matter what my apprehensions.
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Well, we left the dining room, five of us, and made our
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ceremonious way down the narrow rose colored hall corridor and turned into the living room.
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Julia was keen on ventilation, and she had left one of the windows
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open during dinner so that the room was fresh and cool. I can see
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now as she went to close it, and as she came back to take
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her seat on a cricket by the fire of cannel coal. It was a
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pretty scene. What would the candlelight, the dancing yellow flames in the little
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grate, and the dancing side show and miniature shining from the polished rosewood of
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the piano across the room, the comfortable chairs and sofas with their bright cushions,
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the subdued colors of the hangings, through many of which there ran dull
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threads of gold that glimmered with reflected light. It was a long, narrow
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room of knick knacks and luxury, of beauty, and shadow, of softness
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and glow, and above all, of comfort awaiting. I say, we
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left the dining room, five of us, and came to this living room,
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Giles holding aside the portier for us to pass in, but he had
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no sooner let it drop behind himself, the last to enter. Than I
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knew there were six persons in that room. I felt it as you count
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on your fingers, five, as you feel in every nerve in your body
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six. Perhaps I shouldn't imply six persons, five persons and the specter invisible
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until later in the evening, but present all the time. I did not
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need to look over my shoulder for it. I knew when it changed its
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place. I knew that for some time it paid no attention to us,
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but wandered aimlessly along the shadowy walls and across the space behind us. Then
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it began to disturb Julia and me, though still invisible. First, I
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felt a fine but penetrating draft of cold air upon the back of my neck.
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Searching the inlet, I left my seat and went to the window that
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gave on the veranda over the river. It was tightly fastened, and the
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curtains before it did not sway a hair's breath. No air blew in there
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from the outside. Besides, there was no wind anyhow. As I came
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back to my place on the sofa, Julia glanced up at me, and
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her look told me that it would be useless to try to shut off that
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discomforting draft. It came through no window, it had no direction. Yet
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when I settled down on the sofa, my neck below the back of it.
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From time to time the hair on my head was slightly moved, not
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by such a disturbance of air as would be created by the passage of a
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person behind me, but as if a mischievous sprite were blowing on it.
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Nothing could have been slighter or more swiftly passing. Yet nothing in that warm,
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fire lit room, and in the midst of a company apparently absorbed in
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intercourse, could have been more unnaturally and more insistently tormenting, or more chilling.
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Over our coffee, we talked of nothing at all. If I was
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ill at ease, then it was only from vague forebodings or troubled imaginings of
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what Julia might be dreading, or even already suffering. I knew the specter
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was in our midst, I had not begun to suffer from it for a
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minute or two. After the old servant had taken her cups away too,
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the thing refrained from actual contact with me. Julia knocked the black lumps of
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coal into smaller pieces, from which bright yellow flames burst out, illuminating our
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faces. Oddly, Annette took up her knitting. Giles lit a cigar.
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It was all peaceful enough. I remember that Eric sat behind us, all
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farthest from the fire, into which he gazed meditatively most of the evening.
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Anette tells me, only she and Giles could watch his face. But Annette
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asked Giles quietly to tell us now how he had passed the day. And
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it was then I got up and went to the window to see if it
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was open. It was then I first felt that draft. I think it
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must have been the touch of I see spectral fingers. I was able to
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listen to Giles's tail until this touch became something worse. I made the greatest
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effort of will I was capable of to follow him all along. I suspected
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that he was putting Eric through an inquisition, but later later I both heard
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and did not hear. In response to Annette, Giles said he had a
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very interesting day, but before recounting it, he began to praise Julia for
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the charm of her house, what she had been able to make out of
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such a freakish old summer cottage built by a man who he had learned,
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had been noted for a cold sense of piety rather than a warm sense of
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beauty, and had certainly bequeathed her little to work on. I recall his
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accent on the word it was a good thing for the commuters who lived in
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foresby that Julia had come among them. Her influence would not be wholly lost.
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By the way, and he spoke to Eric, not Julia, how
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did you ever happen to come to this part of the world greer? You
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can imagine that Annette and I pricked up our ears at that. As for
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Eric, Annette told me afterwards that he never moved a muscle except to raise
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his eyebrows, as if surprised that Giles should suddenly drag him thus into a
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conversation in which he had had but a drowsy interest. He answered lazily clearing
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his throat a little. I don't remember Pharaoh, just how it was,
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asked Julia, do you, dear truly, I believe that the past was
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dead for him by force of his will to live. He had made it
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as if it had never been. He denied it to himself, and if
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he denied it to himself, it was no lie for him to deny it
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to others. But Giles kept protting and prodding into it, and was to
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do even more. I know that it's sudden coming to life again, drove
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Eric. For the time being. Mad, Julia could have had no suspicion
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of what Giles was doing. She remembered how Eric and she had been led
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into this part of the world when towards the end of their honeymoon they were
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wondering where to settle down. Dear me, there was no talk this night,
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as there use once to be a building, a nest, and being
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so full of happy hopes that even the houses sang to them. The song
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in this house had been abominable, but some one had told them about Stanton,
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so we just came down to have a look round and stumbled on this
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house. Fancy that, said Giles, perhaps not heeding the weary tone of
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Julia's voice. I never heard of Stanton until I came to Foresby, though
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I had seen the Foresby scheme more or less advertised. Some one in New
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York told you. I suppose it is hard to think that it would occur
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to a New Yorker to recommend such a sleepy, out of the way village.
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I don't remember who it was. Julia returned without much interest. As
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a matter of fact, some one told Eric, and he told me she
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had a fit of painful coughing. Eric started from his chair and left the
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room to fetch her a warmer shawl. By the time he had come back,
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I had changed the conversation. He laid the shawl he brought with him
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tenderly about his wife's shoulders, and then took his seat again quietly. Giles
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began then to talk to us about religious mania. Judging by Eric's face,
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Annette told me his thoughts might have been far away from the talk. He
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didn't move in his chair and continued to look meditatively into the fire. It
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seemed to me a silly thing for Giles to begin holding forth upon, but
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he was leading up to his interesting experience of the afternoon. I heard only
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a little of it. The intruder was beginning to bother me in Stanton.
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That very afternoon, Giles had come across an extraordinary human creature, whom,
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for lack of any other word, he must call a girl. Though her
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face was not without a regularity of form and feature, she had appeared to
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him not more than half human. She was abnormally blonde. That struck one
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first that in the peculiar, somewhat hypnotic stare of her eyes he had heard
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and seen her speaking in the village store. And when she had opened her
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thin lips he saw that her teeth were white and small, but widely separated
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from each other. He got a most disagreeable impression of cruelty and wickedness under
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anemic but constant sanctimony. My recollections beyond this point are uncertain and intolerable to
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me. All the time I was listening to Giles, it seemed to me
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that the room grew darker and darker, and that the sixth presence materialized,
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yet took on no substance became visible, remained transparent. And if I had
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any sensation but that of horror, it was a longing in some way to
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stand by Julia. Annette tells me that the room certainly was shadowy, some
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of the candles had burned out, but it was very warm, not cold.
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Giles talked in his usual voice and vividly, not as I thought,
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in whispers, and suggestively. She couldn't see his face very well in the
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firelight, but she remembers how the blue smoke from his cigar showed up,
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and she thinks maybe that was the ghost in my mind. Julia turned round
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towards him once or twice, Yes, but she couldn't then see the expression
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of her face, for it was in shadow. She shouldn't have said it
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was horror struck anyhow, It couldn't have been, for there was nothing horrible
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in what Giles said. No, Julia certainly did not fall in trying to
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get to Eric once she half lost her balance on the cricket. Maybe Annette
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thinks she was trying to change her position and her dress caught her and then
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she put a hand down on the floor to keep from falling off. Now,
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the room was certainly warm and very comfortable. What Giles said was very
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interesting, yes, but not very pleasant, not very nice. I looked
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half asleep, in a position that you might think, Annette granted a little
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stiff if your attention were called to it, but not enough to notice otherwise.
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I tell you my recollections of the rest of that evening at Eric's are
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intolerable to me. I will not put myself, even in imagination, back
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in that room, warm and charming as it was. One night last winter,
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Annette and I went to visit some ancient relatives of mine who lived in
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an old house near Boston. It was a cold night, and we sat
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with the other guests before the great hung in under an old fashioned white marble
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half moon chimney piece. The fire was of kennel coal, and there was
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no other light in the room. I stood it as long as I could,
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and then, knowing well I should be branded as a harsh and crude
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New Yorker by the sentimental or was it thrifty gathering, I demanded gaslight of
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my ancients. I would not sit, no matter what the cost to my
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reputation, in a circle of faces distorted and made luridly strange by the dancing
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light of cannel coal, even in that room where sanctimony masked nothing more hateful
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than complacency. I had already begun to feel that deadly, icy malice was
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taking the shape of a woman loping from corner to corner and stealthily along the
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shadowy walls. Ten minutes more of that uncertain light than I should have felt
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hands about my person, or should have seen them at the throat of my
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wife. No, not even in my imagination will I put myself back in
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the living room of Eric's sinister house for those few hours, warm and cozy
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as they say it was that night, when without the air was sharp and
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still and frosty. I drove a Net and Giles home in the Ford.
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They were tired. I was exhausted. None of us had slept the night
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before. Yet Giles would have some beer and a cigarette. He struck me
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as boisterous and obtrusive. Well, he said to me, what did you
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think of my story? I didn't hear what you said, I replied,
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yawning. I know. Nevertheless, I am on the track of what of
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what is back of Eric Greer? Look here, I said, but without
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much fire. If there's wrong about Eric, he's been the victim, and
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God knows still is the victim not the wrong doer. I don't want to
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hear any more about it. It's too horrible what I know. I'm going
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to bed, to bed. I walked the floor for a couple of hours.
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Annette brought me some whisky, much whisky. She was as calm and
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as patient as a woman well can be. She undressed and got into bed
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and went on with her knitting. Her eyes grew more and more anxious,
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till at last I caught a look in them which made me ashamed of my
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frenzy, yet all by my inner self, so to speak. I was
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shocked and desperate. I never have been able to see animals or persons suffer,
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and the thought of the hideous torture Julia might be undergoing, even as
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I paced up and down the room, all but unmanned me. I had
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seen them, yes, both the woman and the little old man, trying
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to strangle her. And Annette thought she had tried merely to change her position
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on the cricket. You must imagine. The horrible picture came back before me
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again and again. I knew how those hands could clutch and pinch. They
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had been on me. But I give you my word, I was nothing,
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nothing, It was Julia, high spirited, frail little thing, sick
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too passionately in love with her husband, her heart crying out for him in
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her mortal need, yet wrenched, twisted, and beaten back by unutterably malevolent
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fiends that loped about him. She was so terribly alone. Eric, who
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would have given his life blood drop by drop for her, was sitting in
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the dark, wounded himself by her dumb actions which he could only misunderstand,
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helpless to protect, even had he known himself the instrument for her torture.
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Whenever he moved, but for my wife's look, I would have dashed my
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head against the wall. Instead, I threw myself on the floor beside her,
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and hid my face on her bed. She kept on knitting. I
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heard the low sound of her needles, but I began, after a few
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moments to feel the beneficence of her look. We waited a long time in
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silence. Then I said to her, are our children all right? Yes,
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dear, she replied softly. They are sleeping peacefully, as you and
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I should be. We must never take them over there again. We shall
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not need to. What do you mean? This cannot go on much longer?
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Pierre, Julia is going away. She told me in confidence to night
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they're going to give up the old house at once, and Eric he will
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go with her. I presume, no, no, no, that cannot
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be again. There was a long silence between us. The clock downstairs struck
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two, very faint. Through walls and closed doors, I heard the regular
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comical sound of Giles's snoring. An errant breeze came in through the window of
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our chamber. Even at this mysterious hour, there was movement over the darkened
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face of the earth. Annette, I asked, what was Giles talking about
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about horrid, abnormal and secret people? You know who? The father and
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the daughter insane, I guess, though very pious. The girl Giles saw
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in Stanton. You heard that, didn't you is the cousin and spit image
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of the other girl, Morgan Snart and his daughter. They were there to
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night. What do you mean, oh, Annette, You must believe what
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I say. When Giles began to speak, the woman stood behind Eric's chair.
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I didn't look, but I felt and I know she was there,
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and that she kept watching Julia and me. The little old man came in
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later and took his place behind Giles. He rubbed his hands all the time,
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and looked down at Julia, often ready to grab her if she tried
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to get to Eric. Think how terrible for a sensitive man like Eric,
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if he ever had to be with things like them when they were alive.
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Annette said nothing, indeed, what could she say. Except for the faint,
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regular sound of Giles's snoring, the house was silent as death. But
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after a while Annette spoke again. Eric didn't seem very much interested, She
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said, he was rather cynical. He was nervous about Julia. She had
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a bad cold, and Giles bored him. I guess he got restless after
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a while and began to clasp and unclasp his hand. No wonder. Giles
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told some gruesome things, how they starved themselves and their animals, and how
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though they were pillars of the church in that neighborhood, there was some horrid
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secret stories about the girl's being cruel. Some one had seen her, Annette
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I whispered. That's when they moved, when Giles told about her beating the
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dog to death. That's when the old man made a sign to the woman,
25:23
and they got ready to leap at Julia. Did they asked Annette as
25:30
if sickened at all this, Eric hated it. Did you see them attack
25:37
Julia before heaven? I did, Annette. They sprang when Giles said their
25:42
name was Snart. No, dear, said my wife soothingly. That's when
25:48
Eric jumped up out of his chair to put an end to Giles's talk.
25:52
Oh my Peter, dear, let us not talk any more about it.
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Eric wouldn't like it. He hated it. Come, you will only make
25:59
yourself sick. They are going away in a day or two. You've been
26:02
thinking so much about that old house that you've got a kink in your brain.
26:06
Julia's all right. She's got a heavy coal, that's all. And
26:10
what could she expect from living in such a damp, old place, a
26:12
Nette, I said, looking up at her. I have seen what I
26:17
have seen. Do not talk about it, Do not mention any more horrors.
26:22
I can't bear it. And I have heard what I have heard,
26:26
a Nette. Julia is in the most deadly and unnatural peril. She is
26:30
sick and weak. Besides, there may be a fiendish death in that house.
26:34
But they are going away, I tell you, day after tomorrow.
26:38
If Eric goes too with her, Good God Pierre you don't mean that he
26:42
will murder her. She leaned forward over me, and I reached up for
26:45
her hands. There was a moment's hush, and then Heaven save us,
26:51
we heard the terrified screams of our sun startled the Nette clutched me and almost
26:56
stifled me. Then as I broke away and got to my feet, her
26:59
mother's and stinked rose up within her, and she sprang out of bed and
27:02
ran barefooted into the children's bedroom. I was hardly behind her. Bobby's screams
27:07
had wakened the baby, and she too began to cry. All in the
27:10
dark. My wife tore the little boy from his bed and hugged him to
27:12
her breast. She could not wake him. He yelled the louder and beat
27:17
at her with his fists. I switched on the lights. Annette was walking
27:21
up and down like a wild, fierce woman, my buxom merry wife,
27:26
her hair flying about her, her bare feet falling soundless like the pads of
27:29
a lioness's feet. Go away, bad dream boo boo, go away,
27:33
bad wicked dream boo. There there, my darling boy. Mother's here.
27:37
Mother will kill the bad dream. Mother will something as it were, flashed
27:41
in my brain. I knew saying that the boy might be in pain,
27:45
and that I would get hot water. I went out of the room,
27:49
but I had no sooner closed the door behind me, as if to keep
27:52
the sound of the screaming from Giles than I darted into the northeast room,
27:56
ripped off the shade from the window, and looked out. A waning moon
28:00
shed light upon the highway. And on the highway I saw a man,
28:04
hatless, running towards our house. He was almost here. If ever he
28:10
got to my house, I knew my son might not survive the force of
28:11
the evil that hounded him. I raced downstairs. The bolt on the front
28:17
door stuck. My fingers were all thumbs. I thought I heard his steps
28:19
on the granalithic walk, and I think I cried out in anguish of fear,
28:22
Keep away, keep away. I swung the door open so that it
28:26
crashed back against the wall. I rushed out and down the walk to the
28:30
road. Eric ran into my arms. He struggled to get by me into
28:33
the house, but I held him. Be quiet, I whispered, you
28:37
can't go in there, for God's sake. What's the matter? He was
28:41
horribly out of breath. His face had the look of a man mortally stricken.
28:45
In the wan moonlight, I saw the tears streaming down his cheeks.
28:48
It's Julia, she's sick. Our telephone out of order. Let me use
28:56
yours. I was terribly alert. I pushed Eric away from our house and
29:00
led him in a wide circle round to the garage and back, telling him
29:03
the doctor's car was broken down, that he must go himself and my ford.
29:07
We pushed the Ford to the street along the smooth cement driveway. I
29:11
didn't want a Nette to know the noise of the engine in the back yard.
29:15
I cranked it. I shoved Eric into the front seat. I pushed
29:18
the car off, and when I saw him well down the road, I
29:19
went back into the house. Upstairs, in the children's room, there was
29:23
my son, laughing in his mother's arms. I had saved him, but
29:27
it was almost the last straw for me that night. And Nette said almost
29:30
nothing to me until we were returned to our own room, and then,
29:34
seeing that my face was terribly pale, she was frightened at her words of
29:38
solicitude. I sat down on my bed and broke down, whereupon treating me
29:42
as if I too had had a bad dream. She patted my bent shoulders,
29:47
caressed me, knelt down and took off my shoes and stockings, and
29:51
I, a grown man, let her do it. She all but undressed
29:56
me, and then she made me get into the bath tub, which she
29:57
had filled with hot water, just hot enough, because Annette always does things
30:03
just right. When she tucked me into bed and gave me some hot whiskey
30:06
and lemon, I didn't know whether I was laughing or crying. Nothing up
30:11
to that stage in the affair had made me feel so bad as barring Eric
30:14
from my house had made me feel. I would not have told my wife
30:18
of it, for anything, I did not wish her to turn against the
30:22
unfortunate fellow. But she found out. She looked out the window and saw
30:26
the garage door open. Then I had to tell her, for she would
30:30
have gone down to close it and would then have found the car gone.
30:34
She hid her feelings. I did not know whether she associated Eric's comings with
30:40
Bobby's bad dream. She would not let me talk at all. I remember,
30:44
though, the last thing I said to her before I went to sleep,
30:47
I said to her, squeezing her hand, well, my Dear,
30:51
you don't see what Julius sees in that house after all end of chapter eight