I never saw
him, but I could see the curtains between the rooms quivering where he had just
passed through; I could hear the chairs creaking as the bamboos sprung under a
weight that had just quitted them; and I could feel when I went to get a book
from the dining-room that somebody was waiting in the shadows of the front
veranda till I should have gone away. Tietjens made the twilight more
interesting by glaring into the darkened rooms, with every hair erect, and
following the motions of something that I could not see. She never entered the
rooms, but her eyes moved, and that was quite sufficient. Only when my servant
came to trim the lamps and make all light and habitable, she would come in with
me and spend her time sitting on her haunches watching an invisible extra man
as he moved about behind my shoulder. Dogs are cheerful companions.
I explained to Strickland, gently as might be, that I would go over to the club
and find for myself quarters there. I admired his hospitality, was pleased with
his guns and rods, but I did not much care for his house and its atmosphere. He
heard me out to the end, and then smiled very wearily, but without contempt,
for he is a man who understands things. "Stay on," he said, "and see what this
thing means.
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