The Ghost by Arnold Bennet Chapter 19 Page 8

even here in the thoroughfares of the city, and upon the whole I preferred to return to my lodging. Nay, I was the victim of a positive desire for that scene of my torture.

I returned. It was eleven o’clock. The apparition awaited me. But this time it was not seated in the chair. It stood with its back to the window, and its gaze met mine as I entered the room. I did not close the door, and my eyes never left its face. The sneer on its thin lips was bitterer, more devilishly triumphant, than before. Erect, motionless, and inexorable, the ghost stood there, and it seemed to say: “What is the use of leaving the door open? You dare not escape. You cannot keep away from me. To-night you shall die of sheer terror.”

With a wild audacity I sat down in the very chair which it