‘Don’t be shy, my friend!’
I sprang out of the cab, ran across the pavement, and up the steps. To my surprise, there was no one in the doorway. It seemed incredible, but the place was empty. I felt about me with my hands, as if I had been playing at blind man’s buff, and grasped at vacancy. I came down a step or two.
‘Ostensibly, there’s a vacuum,—which nature abhors.—I say, driver, didn’t you see someone come up the steps?’
‘I thought I did, sir,—I could have sworn I did.’
‘So could I.—It’s very odd.’
‘Perhaps whoever it was has gone into the ’ouse, sir.’
‘I don’t see how. We should have heard the door open, if we hadn’t seen it,—and we should have seen it, it’s not so dark as that.—I’ve half a mind to ring the bell and inquire.’
‘I shouldn’t do that if I was you, sir,—you jump in, and I’ll get along. This is Mr Lessingham’s,—the great Mr Lessingham’s.’
I believe the cabman thought that I was drunk,—and not respectable enough to claim acquaintance with the great Mr Lessingham.
‘Wake up, Woodville! Do you know I believe there’s some mystery about this place,—I feel assured of it. I feel as if I were in the presence of something uncanny,—something which I can neither see, nor touch, nor hear.’