“Mind you make a good fire. It’s

very cold.”

The girl turned and showed me a startled face. It was not Emily at

all!

“Where’s Emily? ” I exclaimed.

“You mean the girl as was ‘ere before me?”

“Has Emily left?”

“I came on the 6th,” she replied sullenly, “and she’d gone then.” I

got my book and went back to bed. Emily must have been sent away

almost immediately after our conversation. This reflection kept coming

between me and the printed page. I was glad when it was time to get up.

Such prompt energy, such merciless decision, seemed to argue

something of importance—to somebody.

Nov. 13.—The wound inflicted by the cat’s claw has swollen, and

causes me annoyance and some pain. It throbs and itches. I’m afraid my

blood must be in poor condition, or it would have healed by now. I

opened it with a penknife soaked in an antiseptic solution, and

cleansed it thoroughly. I have heard unpleasant stories of the results

of wounds inflicted by cats.

Nov. 14.—In spite of the curious effect this house certainly

exercises upon my nerves, I like it. It is lonely and deserted in the

very heart of London, but it is also for that reason quiet to work in.

I wonder why it is so cheap. Some people might he suspicious, but I did

not even ask the reason. No answer is better than a lie. If only I

could remove the cats from the outside and the rats from the inside. I

feel that I shall grow accustomed more and more to its peculiarities,

and shall die here. Ah, that expression reads queerly and gives a

wrong impression: I meant live and die here. I shall renew the lease

from year to year till one of us crumbles to pieces. From present

indications the building will be the first to go.

Nov. 16.—It is abominable the way my nerves go up and down with

me—and rather discouraging. This morning I woke to find my clothes

scattered about the room, and a cane chair overturned beside the bed.

My coat and waistcoat looked just as if they had been tried on by

someone in the night. I had horribly vivid dreams, too, in which

someone covering his face with his hands kept coming close up to me,

crying out as if in pain.