LONDON
EVELEIGH NASH COMPANY
LIMITED
1916
| First Printed | 1906 |
| Uniform Edition | 1915 |
| Reprinted | 1916 |
Certain houses, like certain persons, managesomehow to proclaim at once their character forevil. In the case of the latter, no particularfeature need betray them; they may boast anopen countenance and an ingenuous smile; andyet a little of their company leaves the unalterableconviction that there is something radically amisswith their being: that they are evil. Willy nilly,they seem to communicate an atmosphere of secretand wicked thoughts which makes those in theirimmediate neighbourhood shrink from them asfrom a thing diseased.
And, perhaps, with houses the same principleis operative, and it is the aroma of evil deedscommitted under a particular roof, long after theactual doers have passed away, that makes thegooseflesh come and the hair rise. Something ofthe original passion of the evil-doer, and of thehorror felt by his victim, enters the heart ofthe innocent watcher, and he becomes suddenlyconscious of tingling nerves, creeping skin, and achilling of the blood. He is terror-stricken withoutapparent cause.
There was manifestly nothing in the externalappearance of this particular house to bear outthe tales of the horror that was said to reignwithin. It was neither lonely nor unkempt. Itstood, crowded into a corner of the square, andlooked exactly like the houses on either side ofit. It had the same number of windows as itsneighbours; the same balcony overlooking thegardens; the same white steps leading up to theheavy black front door; and, in the rear, therewas the same narrow strip of green, with neatbox borders