The Chippendale Mirror by E F Benson

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In E. F.
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Benson's The Chippendale Mirror, an antique looking glass becomes the
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focal point of a chilling, supernatural mystery. As night falls,
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the mirror's surface darkens, offering glimpses of something beyond our world.
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A cat's eerie fascination with the glass hints at unseen
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forces at work. When the boundary between past and present blurs,
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what consequences away those who peer too deeply into the
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ornate frame. I am Tony Walker, and on this episode
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of the Classic Ghost Stories podcast, I will be reading E. F.
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Benson's The Chippendale Mirror.
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Everybody Dies.
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The Chippendale Mirror by E. F.
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Benson.
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No crime, perhaps of recent years, are oursed more interest,
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or stimulated to so high a degree the acumen of
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the amateur detective as that known as the Wimbledon Mystery,
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whereby Missus Yates met the death that so long went
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unavenged for nearly six months. It may be remembered, the police,
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even with the aid of the suggestions so liberally supplied
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to them by their unprofessional colleagues, failed to lay hands
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on the murderer, who certainly exhibited the most consummate control
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of himself. And did not, as is generally the case,
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commit any of those acts of carelessness born of regained confidence,
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whereby crime is commonly brought home to the criminal. Whether
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he would have escaped altogether, indeed, is doubtful, for though
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he had not, when the guilt was fastened upon him,
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incurred danger by rieping the fruits of his crime, he
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had not made up his mind to part with the
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evidence of it. His detection, however, was due to no
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blunder of his own, but to circumstances against which he
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could not possibly have guarded himself. It will be well
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to recall in outline the main facts of his crime.
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Missus Yates had lived for a number of years with
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her husband in one of the pleasant detached residences that
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face Wimbledon common The marriage, chiefly owing to her intemperant habits,
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had long been an unhappy one, and a week or
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so before her death, husband and wife had determined to
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live apart. She was Italian by birth and proposed to
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go back again to her southern skies, and with the
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very handsome allowance that he was prepared to give her
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to make her home there. The day before she left,
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he had supplied her with money, to the extent of
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one hundred and fifty pounds as traveling expenses for herself
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and her mind, and to enable her to have control
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of ready cash until she had established her banking account
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in Rome. This sum was now in her possession, chiefly
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in the form of five pound notes with a certain
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amount of English gold. That afternoon, her husband was summoned
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to London on some urgent business affairs, and in the
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evening telephoned to her that since he would be detained
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over them till after midnight, he would sleep in town
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and meet her next morning at Victoria Station. She would
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drive up there in the motor car which had taken
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him to town that afternoon, and would now return without him.
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Next morning. At seven o'clock, her maid went into her
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room to call her, and found her lying on the
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floor by the bed with her throat cut. Her head
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was smothered in one of her pillows, which was tied
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round it, and the bed and the floor and the
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furniture of the room were thickly dabbed with her blood.
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The murderer, it seemed, had worn gloves, for no finger
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prints were found, and indeed the charred remains of a
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pair belonging to her husband were discovered among the ashes
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in the grate. The fact that they were burnt seemed
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to indicate that the crime had taken place early in
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the night, for otherwise the fire in her room would
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have gone out. The motive, for it was clear enough
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for her money was missing. Servants sleeping in the house
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had not heard anything. For nearly six months, no clues
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of any kind were obtained. It was ascertained beyond doubt
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that her husband was not implicated, for he was occupied
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at his office till after midnight, and shortly before one
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o'clock the night porter of the hotel where he stayed
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let him in and took him up in the lift
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of his room, while for the rest of the night
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no one entered or left the hotel. The strictest interrogatories
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were held of the servants in the house and search
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made for the missing money, but no light of any
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sort was cast on this black and baffling crime. It
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seem i certain, however, that the murder was committed by
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some one who had entered the house for that purpose.
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For the flower beds below the drawing room windows, which
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were open, were marked with footprints which appeared to have
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been erased by the murderer, for they were blurred and
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without value as a clue. Among the bank notes there
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were certain new ones of which the numbers were known,
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but no attempt was made to catch these. The four
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men servants, butler, chauffeur and two footmen were narrowly watched,
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but none showed signs of being in unexplained affluents. The
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murderer had gone out again into the night, as silent
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and as unobserved as he had entered. Mister Yates finally
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never lived in the house again. The lease was put
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up for auction, and a certain part of the furniture,
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that of his wife's bedroom, was sold, for he could
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not bear to look on the things that had beheld
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so grim a tragedy. It was some five months after
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these events that I went in on my way back
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from dinner to see my friend Hugh Granger, who had
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not long ago settled in town. A sudden inheritance had
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come to him, and he had lashed out into a
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new and wonderful motor, a gem of a chauffeur, a
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fur coat, and a house in Bedford Square, at present
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rather sparsely furnished, for he had moved into it from
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narrower quarters with a wisdom that refused to be hurried.
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He did not instantly fill up his ungarnished spaces with
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random purchases, but by dint of keeping his eyes and
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pockets well open, was gradually acquiring pieces that admirably suited
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the tall adam decorated rooms. And now a sideboard, and
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now a root chair, now a Sheraton cabinet would contribute
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to the embellishment to night. I found him in a
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state of high content over a Chippendale mirror which he
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had found in some incredible place in Putney and had
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purchased for an incredibly low price. It had only just arrived,
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and at present stood on the floor of a sitting room,
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till fixed in the divinely appointed place over the Chimney place.
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Certainly it was a charming acquisition, and gloatingly he pointed
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out to me the fineness of its inlay, the graceful
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curves of its framework, its original gilding, and in particular
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its original glass. And the price too, he said, why
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a modern copy would cost more Putney. I didn't know
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such a good thing had come out of Putney. A
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faint but imperious mewing was heard at the door, and
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Hugh hastened to obey the orders of Cyrus the Great,
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his Persian cat, who came very slowly into the room
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in order to give the maximum amount of trouble to
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the person holding the door open for his impressive entry.
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He took no notice, of course, either of the man
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ironically known as his master or myself, and was just
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preparing to spring on his usual chair when he turned
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quickly and ran tail erect towards the mirror. Something about
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it pleased him enormously. At the mirror might have been
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cold grouse, and with loud purrings, he proceeded to patrol
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in front of it, rubbing himself against it. He trod
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high and delicately, protruding and sheathing his claws at each step.
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With flashing eyes and switching tail. He went round behind
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it positively, roaring in his throat with satisfaction, and finally
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sat down close in front of it, his nose almost
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touching the glass and looking rapturously into it. But he
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was not as you may sometimes see a cat do
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regarding his own reflected image. His eyes traveled over the
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whole surface of it with quick turnings of his head.
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Cyrus is as pleased as you, I remarked. Hugh did
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not answer. He was watching the cat curiously.
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If there is.
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One subject that interests in more than beautiful things, it
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is queer things, things connected with the invisible psychical world
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which exists round us as surely as the material world,
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and of which we occasionally catch glimpses. Together, we have
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had numerous strange experiences in seances and haunted houses, and
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it just occurred to me to wonder whether Cyrus's behavior
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was being of psychical interest to him. For myself, as
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far as I am aware, at that moment, this rapturous
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preoccupation of the cat with the mirror gave me no
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further sentiment than interest in the mysterious perceptions of animals.
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I would give the mirror itself to know what Cyrus
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sees in it, said Hugh at length. I know he
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stopped suddenly and pointed with the reflecting surface.
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What is that?
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He said, There's something happening in the mirror. At that moment,
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it may have been merely the suggestion on his part.
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I felt that.
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Sensation which is so well known to those who experienced
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psychical phenomena. It is exactly as if some summons had
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come to you, not from outside at all, but from
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inside the brain, which commands your attention. Simultaneously with that
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mysterious signal, I felt a sudden movement of air stir
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in the room, a faint but quite perceptible cold current.
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At the same moment, Cyrus, who had been sitting quite still,
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got up, in a sort of ecstasy of content, and,
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looking fixedly into the mirror, clawed at the carpet. I
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followed Hugh's pointing finger and looked too.
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The surface of the.
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Glass, in spite of the bright light in which it stood,
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had grown dark, so that I no longer saw the
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reflection of the cat of Hugh standing behind him, of
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the candles that burnt on the table near it. It
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was dim and dusk in the mirror, and in the
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dimness something I couldn't see what moved across it. Immediately afterwards,
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I saw the normal reflections resumed themselves in Cyrus, suddenly
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losing interest in it, turned away and marched across the
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carpet to his usual chair. Hugh spoke, it's gone, he said,
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but I thought no. Tell me if you thought anything.
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I owned to having been considerably startled. This sudden vanishing
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of the reflection, above all, the sense that there had
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been something below that darkness was particularly uncomfortable. It went dark,
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I said, and something moved in the darkness.
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He laughed.
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It's a cheaper bargain than I imagined, he said, I saw
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exactly the same thing. I suppose the psychical society would
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call it a case of collective hallucination, but that doesn't
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seem to explain much. Let's call it the haunted mirror, then,
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I said. Though perhaps that explains even less. But one
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knows what it means.
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Said he.
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It was some two days afterwards that I was in
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the house again. In the interval, the mirror had been
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put in its appointed place and looked admirable there, but
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it had not shown any further signs of behaving in
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the way mirrors are not expected to behave, and losing
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its reflecting powers. Here now it was more on a
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level with my eyes. I could examine it easily and
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admire the excellence of the work. The glass, as I
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have said, was original, and as is usually the case
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with such things, there were a quantity of dark spots
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on it where the glaze of mercury behind it had
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crumbled and fallen off. But in this more detailed examination
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I saw that certain of these spots were not under
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the glass.
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But on it.
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There were not more than some half dozen of them.
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But at the lower edge of the glass, where it
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was set into its wooden frame, there was in the
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crack a little brown deposit similar to the minute specks
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on the glass itself, as if some liquid had run
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into it and dried their rustily, forming just such a
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stain as you will get below a nail driven into
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the wall of a fruit garden. But I noticed this
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so incuriously that when Hugh joined me, I didn't even
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speak of it. He was inclined to be querulous about
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the normal.
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Behavior of the mirror.
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I looked at it half the morning, he said, and
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could see nothing but my own face. And I held
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Cyrus up to it, to his great disgust. He didn't
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take the smallest interest in it, and merely wriggled. But
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did you ever see a mirror so clearly made for
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that particular place? But no more hallucinations, asked not one,
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not the ghost of one. I may say, all the
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same Cyrus saw something the other night, and he enjoyed
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it immensely. Cats have tremendous perceptions, I believe, and they
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love horrors. They love the dead. You know, by the way,
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I want you to dine here tomorrow night. Two marvelously
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tiresome cousins have asked themselves, and as I always help
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you out on similar occasions, I expect reciprocal advantages free trade,
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isn't it. The marvelously tiresome cousins lived up to their character,
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and we spent a dismal evening. They did not play cards.
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The lady objected to the smell of cigarettes. They neither
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of them appeared to possess any ideas on any subject,
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and worst of all, they would not go away. Already
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it was close on midnight. Hugh, with eyes of despair,
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was talking the most dreary nonsense on the subject of
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foreign politics. When suddenly there came to my brain that
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secret signal that I have spoken of, and the little
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00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:05.759
cold draft crept round my head. At that moment, Cyrus,
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00:15:05.759 --> 00:15:08.840
who had been sleeping peacefully in his red chair, awoke
246
00:15:08.919 --> 00:15:12.200
in a state of purring excitement. He stretched and waved
247
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his tail, and then, suddenly, catching sight of the mirror
248
00:15:15.399 --> 00:15:19.679
made one superb bound and landed on the chimney piece.
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Hugh's voice ceased from its stream of foreign politics, and
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he took two steps across to the fireplace and looked
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in the mirror. What a beautiful cat, said the lady
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who did not like the smell of tobacco, And how
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00:15:31.799 --> 00:15:34.480
beautifully it jumps. How lucky there was nothing on the
254
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chimney piece for it to break. Poorposse ere I had
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00:15:38.200 --> 00:15:40.360
stood up too, and her voice came to me as
256
00:15:40.360 --> 00:15:43.559
in a dream, For all that was real was comprised
257
00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:47.480
in the bright glass, which had again grown suddenly dark.
258
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I leant over a huge shoulder, hearing his breath coming
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quick and short as he looked, And in the darkness
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00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:59.559
that hung on the wall of the bright room, I saw,
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00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:04.840
sir things. I was looking into a dark room that
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00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:07.559
was lit only by a faint gleam that came through
263
00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:10.840
a window blind opposite, and by a lantern that was
264
00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:14.559
being carried across that room. A bed glimmered whitely there,
265
00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:17.639
and in the bed was a figure that suddenly sat
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00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:20.360
upright as the moving lantern came close to it. The
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00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:24.000
lantern was carried by a man, and for one second
268
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I caught a glimpse of his face. How long this
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00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:30.320
vision lasted in the actual world of time and space,
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I cannot say. It seemed to last for just as
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00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:36.320
long as it would take a man to cross a room.
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00:16:36.799 --> 00:16:39.399
And then I became aware that Hugh and I were
273
00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:42.759
looking into a perfectly normal mirror, and that Cyrus jumped
274
00:16:42.759 --> 00:16:46.320
down on the hearth rug with a soft thud. But
275
00:16:46.600 --> 00:16:49.600
in that minute I had descended into some horror of
276
00:16:49.639 --> 00:16:53.440
great darkness. I was entangled in a terror that was
277
00:16:53.480 --> 00:16:57.159
only bearable because it was mingled with the intensest curiosity.
278
00:16:57.559 --> 00:17:01.200
I knew what I had seen, That which had dimmed
279
00:17:01.240 --> 00:17:04.440
the polished surface of the glass for those few seconds,
280
00:17:04.839 --> 00:17:09.519
was something hellish and awful intruding into the quiet boredom
281
00:17:09.559 --> 00:17:13.319
of this room in a solid house, in a commonplace square,
282
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Some silent witness of a tragedy had come to trouble
283
00:17:17.759 --> 00:17:21.759
the house. It was not just a photograph of some mysterious,
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00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:25.720
fiendish deed that had been presented. It was the very
285
00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:30.039
deed itself, And as yet I knew not nor guessed
286
00:17:30.079 --> 00:17:33.200
what the deed was. Simply, at some time or other,
287
00:17:33.319 --> 00:17:36.799
a man with a lean, clean shaven face, which somehow
288
00:17:36.839 --> 00:17:39.599
I thought I had seen in actual life, had come
289
00:17:39.640 --> 00:17:42.279
with a lantern into a bedroom. But I did not
290
00:17:42.440 --> 00:17:45.279
doubt that it was of something terrible that I had
291
00:17:45.319 --> 00:17:48.960
had a glimpse. All this flashed through my consciousness as
292
00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:51.799
I turned back into the room again. The two guests
293
00:17:51.799 --> 00:17:54.240
were already on their feet, preparing at last to go.
294
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Cyrus was curled up in his chair, and Hugh was saying,
295
00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:02.119
in a rather odd voice, what already, surely.
296
00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:03.039
It's very early?
297
00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:07.079
We confabulated together when he returned from his work of
298
00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:11.000
speeding the departing with occasional glances at the mirror till
299
00:18:11.039 --> 00:18:14.880
late into the early hours, we had seen it appeared
300
00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:18.039
very much the same thing. But whereas I had noticed
301
00:18:18.039 --> 00:18:20.599
the face of the man who carried the lantern, he
302
00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:22.640
had seen that of the woman who had sat up
303
00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:25.960
in bed to me. That part of the room had
304
00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:28.400
been blurred. I had not seen whether it was a
305
00:18:28.400 --> 00:18:31.319
man or a woman who lay there to him. Also,
306
00:18:31.480 --> 00:18:34.640
the lantern light had gleamed on something the man carried.
307
00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:38.359
It was then that I remembered the brown deposit in
308
00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:42.960
the craft between the mirror and its frame. Now this
309
00:18:43.119 --> 00:18:46.000
vision had appeared on two occasions about midnight, and our
310
00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:51.960
theory fantastic and terrible began to take shape. Had some tragedy,
311
00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:55.559
such as we had seen the opening of, taken place
312
00:18:55.759 --> 00:19:01.039
somewhen somewhere at that hour, had the mind retained as
313
00:19:01.079 --> 00:19:04.359
on a photographic plate, some image which was ready, if
314
00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:07.799
the conditions for its psychical transmission were favorable, to be
315
00:19:07.880 --> 00:19:13.079
reproduced again made visible to mortal eye. By strange coincidence,
316
00:19:13.119 --> 00:19:15.240
the mirror had come into my friend's possession, and he
317
00:19:15.319 --> 00:19:19.000
and I, both sensitive to psychical phenomena, had seen a
318
00:19:19.039 --> 00:19:21.880
fragment of the deed that had been enacted in front
319
00:19:21.880 --> 00:19:24.640
of it. It seemed, too, as if the power that
320
00:19:24.799 --> 00:19:28.400
made this visible was on the increase. The message was
321
00:19:28.440 --> 00:19:32.079
getting through more clearly. On the first occasion we had
322
00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:35.160
seen little more than darkness. On the second we had
323
00:19:35.200 --> 00:19:40.119
seen something of that which took place below it. We
324
00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:42.200
had agreed to meet again the next night, and I
325
00:19:42.319 --> 00:19:45.039
arrived at the house about eleven, only to find a
326
00:19:45.079 --> 00:19:48.000
note from Hugh that he had been unavoidably called away
327
00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:51.400
but expected to be back before midnight. Look at the
328
00:19:51.400 --> 00:19:54.880
woman's face, he had underlined, an idea has occurred to me.
329
00:19:56.319 --> 00:19:59.640
It was with a certain faltering of courage that I
330
00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:03.759
set to go upstairs and wait for him. As I
331
00:20:03.839 --> 00:20:06.640
went up, a great flounce of movement from behind the
332
00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:10.039
curtain on the stairs startled me, and Cyrus pounced out,
333
00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:13.000
preceding me to the room where the mirror hung. He
334
00:20:13.119 --> 00:20:16.000
ran in eagerly. When I opened the door, and turning
335
00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:19.279
on the electric light, I found him erect and superb
336
00:20:19.319 --> 00:20:23.000
and pleased in the center of the carpet. For some
337
00:20:23.079 --> 00:20:26.240
while I occupied myself with the evening papers, which contained
338
00:20:26.279 --> 00:20:29.559
news of merit. Cyrus was coiled.
339
00:20:29.240 --> 00:20:30.079
Up on his chair.
340
00:20:30.680 --> 00:20:33.480
The footsteps, which it sounded, muffled as they passed up
341
00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:36.759
the back staircase, grew quiet, and the hush of night
342
00:20:37.240 --> 00:20:42.960
settled down on the house outside, where the air was foggy.
343
00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:46.839
The square was noiseless, save for the occasional hoot of
344
00:20:46.920 --> 00:20:51.200
a motor passing in the streets. By degrees, I found
345
00:20:51.200 --> 00:20:54.319
the light growing rather dim, as if the fog had
346
00:20:54.400 --> 00:20:58.880
penetrated into the room, and soon it became impossible to.
347
00:20:58.839 --> 00:20:59.519
Read the paper.
348
00:21:00.200 --> 00:21:02.680
Yet the air seemed clear enough, and the mirror above
349
00:21:02.680 --> 00:21:06.559
the chimney piece sharply reflected from where I sat, the
350
00:21:06.599 --> 00:21:09.319
ceiling and cornice of the room, on which the light
351
00:21:09.359 --> 00:21:12.960
from the hearth played and flickered. I had no watch
352
00:21:13.039 --> 00:21:16.039
with me, and thus no accurate idea of the speed
353
00:21:16.359 --> 00:21:19.480
with which time passed, but I was conscious of an
354
00:21:19.480 --> 00:21:26.160
increasing anxiety that he should return. Then quite suddenly Cyrus
355
00:21:26.200 --> 00:21:30.880
awoke and stood up on his chair, with eyes flashing
356
00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:34.559
and eager. With one bound, he perched himself on the
357
00:21:34.640 --> 00:21:38.000
chimney piece, and following his movement, I saw that the
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00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:42.759
brightness of the reflections in the mirror was growing dim
359
00:21:43.079 --> 00:21:48.480
and blurred. Simultaneously came the strong inward call to attend,
360
00:21:49.240 --> 00:21:51.519
and I felt my hair just raised by a draft
361
00:21:51.559 --> 00:21:59.119
of cold breeze that came from nowhere. It, whatever it was,
362
00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:05.480
was coming. At that sheer unreasoning terror seized me. It
363
00:22:05.519 --> 00:22:07.839
had been bad enough the night before, when Hugh was there,
364
00:22:08.119 --> 00:22:12.359
and when his two guests gave the comforting sense of companionship. Now,
365
00:22:13.119 --> 00:22:16.440
when it had caught me alone, the terror was ten
366
00:22:16.640 --> 00:22:20.519
times magnified. Yet in spite of it I did not
367
00:22:20.680 --> 00:22:25.160
simply because I could not merely leave the room. The
368
00:22:25.240 --> 00:22:28.960
flesh and blood of me cried out to go. But
369
00:22:29.079 --> 00:22:35.640
some force as overmastering as brute physical compulsion, made me
370
00:22:35.720 --> 00:22:40.440
get up and walk across the room to where the
371
00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:47.000
mirror hung. Already a black oblong on the wall. It
372
00:22:47.079 --> 00:22:49.640
was dark in the mirror, but very soon I saw
373
00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:53.119
that it was dark because I was actually standing in
374
00:22:53.240 --> 00:22:57.519
the dim room which it disclosed. A little light came
375
00:22:57.559 --> 00:23:01.160
filtering through the blind of the window opposite me, and
376
00:23:01.279 --> 00:23:04.680
in the dimness I began to see the objects of
377
00:23:04.759 --> 00:23:09.359
the room contained. Everything appeared life sized, as if I
378
00:23:09.480 --> 00:23:13.960
was actually standing there. Opposite then was the window through
379
00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:16.920
which this little light came. On the left of it
380
00:23:17.039 --> 00:23:20.680
was a dressing table, where silver faintly gleamed, and also
381
00:23:21.079 --> 00:23:24.240
I could just see a glass and a decanter. To
382
00:23:24.279 --> 00:23:27.079
the left of that was another window, over which curtains
383
00:23:27.079 --> 00:23:30.559
were drawn. On the left hand wall, a bed projected
384
00:23:30.599 --> 00:23:33.960
into the room, and on the pillow was a woman's head.
385
00:23:35.240 --> 00:23:37.480
I appeared to stand close to the foot of this bed.
386
00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:40.240
On the right hand wall, beside the window was a
387
00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:43.799
closed door, and near it a fireplace. Over the fireplace
388
00:23:43.880 --> 00:23:46.480
hung a mirror, and I saw that, in form and
389
00:23:46.640 --> 00:23:51.440
curve and size, it was the mirror into which I
390
00:23:51.559 --> 00:23:56.160
was now looking. Suddenly this door opened, and a man
391
00:23:56.319 --> 00:23:59.680
carrying a lantern came in. He flashed it quickly round
392
00:23:59.720 --> 00:24:02.200
the room, and then came across towards the bed where
393
00:24:02.200 --> 00:24:05.559
the woman lay. She sprang up to a sitting position,
394
00:24:05.599 --> 00:24:07.640
and the light fell on her face, so that for
395
00:24:07.680 --> 00:24:11.519
one second eye saw it quite clearly. Next moment, he
396
00:24:11.559 --> 00:24:13.799
had seized her pillow and bent it round her head,
397
00:24:14.039 --> 00:24:18.119
appearing to tie it there and wildly groping. She wrestled
398
00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:22.359
with him. He made one dreadful slicing movement with his
399
00:24:22.519 --> 00:24:26.599
hand across her throat, and I saw the blood stream
400
00:24:26.680 --> 00:24:30.200
on her night dress. She clutched him and across the room.
401
00:24:30.279 --> 00:24:34.359
They struggled together while the blood flowed from her. Then,
402
00:24:35.160 --> 00:24:38.880
as the life ebbed, her struggle ceased, and presently she
403
00:24:38.960 --> 00:24:41.880
sank in a heap on the floor. But I had
404
00:24:41.880 --> 00:24:44.400
seen her face before it was smothered in the pillow,
405
00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:49.920
and I knew I had seen it er its presentment before. Gradually,
406
00:24:49.960 --> 00:24:51.839
the light came back into the mirror, and I found
407
00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:54.880
myself looking no longer at these horrors, but at my
408
00:24:54.960 --> 00:24:58.079
own white reflection. There was a soft thud on the
409
00:24:58.119 --> 00:25:02.440
ground beside me, and Cyrus had jumped down again. At
410
00:25:02.440 --> 00:25:05.119
that moment, I heard a motor stop at the street door,
411
00:25:05.119 --> 00:25:08.319
and went downstairs. Hugh had just let himself in, and
412
00:25:08.359 --> 00:25:12.759
behind him, carrying a rug, stood his chauffeur, And instantly
413
00:25:12.920 --> 00:25:15.440
I knew who was the man who had come into
414
00:25:15.519 --> 00:25:18.599
a bedroom one night and done to death the woman
415
00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:22.519
who slept there. A hunt through picture papers next day
416
00:25:22.599 --> 00:25:26.440
confirmed the identity of the woman, and after making certain arrangements,
417
00:25:26.519 --> 00:25:29.480
Hugh rang his bell that night a little before twelve,
418
00:25:29.839 --> 00:25:32.680
which was the summons for his chauffeur. He talked to
419
00:25:32.759 --> 00:25:35.599
him for some minutes while I watched the mirror, And
420
00:25:35.720 --> 00:25:39.240
when again it began to grow dark, I nodded to Hugh,
421
00:25:39.599 --> 00:25:43.400
who got up from his chair. Look in that mirror, Atkinson,
422
00:25:43.640 --> 00:25:48.000
he said, And as he spoke, the curtain behind me twitched.
423
00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:54.480
For myself. I merely watched Atkinson's face, and presently there
424
00:25:54.599 --> 00:25:58.440
passed over it a change so appalling that the mask
425
00:25:58.559 --> 00:26:03.319
of horror I looked on see scarcely human. A hideous
426
00:26:03.400 --> 00:26:07.359
pallor spread over the man's face. The sweat poured from him,
427
00:26:07.599 --> 00:26:10.640
his mouth opened and panted for breath, and his eyes
428
00:26:10.799 --> 00:26:15.079
glued to the glass that showed him his own crime
429
00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:19.519
seemed to bulge and protrude from his head. Then, with
430
00:26:19.599 --> 00:26:23.039
a yell that still sounds in my ears. He fell
431
00:26:23.160 --> 00:26:25.759
in a heap on the hearth rug, and from behind
432
00:26:25.759 --> 00:26:28.559
the curtain there stepped out the two men whom Scotland
433
00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:32.160
Yard had sent down. There remains but little to be told.
434
00:26:32.880 --> 00:26:35.640
In the wretched Man's bedroom, hidden beneath the chest of
435
00:26:35.759 --> 00:26:38.960
drawers were found certain bank notes, of which the numbers
436
00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:42.480
were known. Subsequently, I went to Wimbledon, and there in
437
00:26:42.519 --> 00:26:45.359
the bedroom where Missus Yates's body was discovered in the
438
00:26:45.400 --> 00:26:49.000
morning by her maid, was an oblong of unfaded paper
439
00:26:49.599 --> 00:26:54.640
above the chimney piece, commensurate with the shape of the
440
00:26:54.720 --> 00:27:09.599
Chippendale Mirror. Everybody Dies. So that was the Chippendale Mirror
441
00:27:09.640 --> 00:27:12.519
by E. F. Benson, and it was published in nineteen
442
00:27:12.640 --> 00:27:17.200
twelve in his collection Visible and Invisible. It was reprinted.
443
00:27:17.680 --> 00:27:20.119
I don't think I have a copy of Visible and Invisible,
444
00:27:20.119 --> 00:27:24.599
but it was reprinted into the London fog e retails
445
00:27:24.599 --> 00:27:26.680
from the Weird City in twenty twenty one by the
446
00:27:26.680 --> 00:27:29.359
British Library. And if you haven't got any of their
447
00:27:30.279 --> 00:27:33.480
Library of the Weird, they do detectives as well, but
448
00:27:33.799 --> 00:27:37.079
you know, I've mainly got the weird ones and they
449
00:27:37.240 --> 00:27:41.039
surface all sorts of stories that would otherwise have been lost,
450
00:27:41.799 --> 00:27:43.759
and I think certainly if you can live in the UK.
451
00:27:43.920 --> 00:27:45.720
I used to have a subscription to them and every
452
00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:48.039
month I'll get a new one, but I found I
453
00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:51.920
couldn't read them fast enough, so even though they were great,
454
00:27:52.599 --> 00:27:54.920
I stopped my subscription.
455
00:27:56.599 --> 00:27:57.000
Anyway.
456
00:27:57.200 --> 00:27:59.640
So we've done a bunch of E. F. Benson stories
457
00:27:59.640 --> 00:28:04.799
before well quickly go over his bio. So Edward Frederick
458
00:28:04.839 --> 00:28:07.960
Benson known as Fred born eighteen sixty seven at Wellington
459
00:28:08.119 --> 00:28:12.599
College in Berkshire, very prestigious public school, and he was
460
00:28:12.599 --> 00:28:15.799
the fifth child of Edward White Benson, notable figure who
461
00:28:15.839 --> 00:28:18.680
was headmaster there at Wellington at the time. Later was
462
00:28:19.680 --> 00:28:23.799
Bishop of Cornwall at Truro and Archbishop of Canterbury, the
463
00:28:23.839 --> 00:28:29.839
top dog in the Anglican Church when he was at Cambridge.
464
00:28:29.920 --> 00:28:32.720
The dad this is was a founder member of the
465
00:28:32.759 --> 00:28:35.400
Ghost Club, so he had an interest in supernatural stuff
466
00:28:36.240 --> 00:28:40.759
as he had five kids and probably didn't call him
467
00:28:40.799 --> 00:28:44.400
kids and his wife with his wife Mary Sidgwick, so
468
00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:47.559
the family were very literary and his brother Arthur Christopher
469
00:28:47.599 --> 00:28:51.640
ac Robert Hugh. We've done the Basil Netherby by ac
470
00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:56.119
Robert Hugh, who became a Catholic and ended up as
471
00:28:56.200 --> 00:28:59.839
a prebendary. I don't think that's the right word to
472
00:28:59.880 --> 00:29:05.720
the Pope in Rome. His sister Maggie Margaret was an Egyptologist,
473
00:29:05.799 --> 00:29:08.839
and she had mental health problems in the forties, and
474
00:29:08.880 --> 00:29:11.119
she was in fact probably the most brilliant of them all.
475
00:29:11.359 --> 00:29:12.880
They all were very.
476
00:29:14.279 --> 00:29:15.000
Significant.
477
00:29:15.440 --> 00:29:18.880
So Land and Land of Hope and Glory, the kind
478
00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:22.880
of English national anthem, if you like, rather than the
479
00:29:22.880 --> 00:29:26.640
British National anthem, was written. The words to it were
480
00:29:26.640 --> 00:29:31.440
written by Robert hugh Ac I've just Adam, you know
481
00:29:31.680 --> 00:29:35.359
these mental door there we are. So anyway, let's go
482
00:29:35.359 --> 00:29:39.240
to Fred. That's quickly gloss over my little potential problem there.
483
00:29:39.640 --> 00:29:43.000
And this is what I do throughout my life. So
484
00:29:43.200 --> 00:29:47.240
he was publicly a public school educated, Temple Grove School,
485
00:29:47.319 --> 00:29:51.640
Marlborough College. His first book was about sketches from Marlborough.
486
00:29:51.680 --> 00:29:54.920
But he was first novel Dodo in eighteen ninety three,
487
00:29:55.200 --> 00:29:57.640
achieved immediate fame and is still a very young man.
488
00:29:59.319 --> 00:30:03.480
And this war a kind of a satirical look at
489
00:30:03.839 --> 00:30:10.079
the bright young things, the upper class bohemian types or
490
00:30:10.559 --> 00:30:15.039
society types. And you know, Fred, if you read these books,
491
00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:17.680
he did work for a living. He was a writer,
492
00:30:17.880 --> 00:30:19.720
but he spent a lot of time with the leisured,
493
00:30:20.240 --> 00:30:23.079
the leisured rich, who just seemed to go on country
494
00:30:23.079 --> 00:30:24.359
house weekends.
495
00:30:23.839 --> 00:30:28.200
And be silly.
496
00:30:28.440 --> 00:30:32.240
Really, he wrote some fantastic ghost stories. I think he
497
00:30:32.279 --> 00:30:35.119
was a great man. He was a figure skater as well.
498
00:30:35.119 --> 00:30:39.599
In the winter he represented England in figure skating, and
499
00:30:39.920 --> 00:30:40.880
I think he's a great writer.
500
00:30:41.759 --> 00:30:44.440
The he's he the best.
501
00:30:44.759 --> 00:30:47.920
Now people say Mr James and m R James can
502
00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:50.359
be very frightening because of the weird elements. I've talked
503
00:30:50.359 --> 00:30:53.519
about that with Mr James before. He's a definitely weird
504
00:30:53.519 --> 00:30:56.279
fiction guy. And much as he might not have liked
505
00:30:56.880 --> 00:31:00.319
Lovecraft's overblown pro style, Lovecraft liked him though, as we
506
00:31:00.359 --> 00:31:01.480
know we've talked about that before.
507
00:31:02.839 --> 00:31:03.640
M R James.
508
00:31:03.960 --> 00:31:07.440
I think if Benson at his best is as good
509
00:31:07.480 --> 00:31:10.119
as Mr James. Don't shoot me, I just said it
510
00:31:11.759 --> 00:31:16.079
comments anyway. So Benson during his lifetime was most famous
511
00:31:16.079 --> 00:31:20.160
for his comic novels Dodo, Do to the Second, Lucy
512
00:31:20.319 --> 00:31:25.720
and Map, but he also he lived in Rye, Sussex
513
00:31:25.759 --> 00:31:27.440
for much of his life, a very pretty little town,
514
00:31:27.640 --> 00:31:30.279
and he died in nineteen forty of throat cancer, and
515
00:31:30.279 --> 00:31:31.599
he's buried in Rye.
516
00:31:31.759 --> 00:31:33.440
He was gay, and he.
517
00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:38.160
Spent his summers in Capri with Somerset marm another writer
518
00:31:38.960 --> 00:31:43.759
and Winters figure skating, and he must have found some
519
00:31:43.920 --> 00:31:49.279
time to write. So when he lived in Rye, he
520
00:31:49.359 --> 00:31:51.680
was mayor of Rye in fact as well, I see
521
00:31:52.319 --> 00:31:55.759
and contributed to the church and memorial window in memory
522
00:31:55.759 --> 00:32:02.319
of his brother in the church. And he he had
523
00:32:02.359 --> 00:32:06.079
an open house. Henry James stayed there, you know, the
524
00:32:06.400 --> 00:32:09.960
great American writer. So and so I said he was gay.
525
00:32:09.759 --> 00:32:12.200
And that doesn't come.
526
00:32:12.079 --> 00:32:17.240
Across a tall except in his in his.
527
00:32:18.960 --> 00:32:21.720
Non supernatural stuff. It doesn't come across I didn't finish
528
00:32:21.759 --> 00:32:25.319
my sentence. Doesn't come across markedly in his supernatural fiction,
529
00:32:25.400 --> 00:32:26.480
but it does in his other.
530
00:32:28.279 --> 00:32:29.839
Uh some of his other work.
531
00:32:29.680 --> 00:32:33.519
Particularly a novel Rook called David Blaze. His relationship with
532
00:32:33.599 --> 00:32:36.559
Hugh Grainger in the story Hugh Granger appears in a
533
00:32:36.559 --> 00:32:40.359
couple of the stories. And he certainly he's in the
534
00:32:40.359 --> 00:32:43.440
house with the brick kiln, and he's in there go
535
00:32:43.680 --> 00:32:46.200
trout fishing and does it in the one.
536
00:32:46.160 --> 00:32:48.559
With the picts the lights.
537
00:32:48.200 --> 00:32:49.519
Is he in that one? He might have be in
538
00:32:49.559 --> 00:32:52.799
that one, and he's in the room in the.
539
00:32:52.759 --> 00:32:53.480
Tower as well.
540
00:32:54.920 --> 00:32:58.079
So I was very interested in Hugh Granger.
541
00:32:59.319 --> 00:33:00.160
I don't know why.
542
00:33:00.920 --> 00:33:04.599
Anyway, when I started writing the notes about this, a
543
00:33:04.680 --> 00:33:09.680
couple of things, kind of really big things came up
544
00:33:09.720 --> 00:33:11.359
and I ended up going down a rabbit hole.
545
00:33:11.720 --> 00:33:13.759
It's new I should say, it's New Year's Eve.
546
00:33:14.599 --> 00:33:17.519
There's a storm blasting outside, lots of wind and rain.
547
00:33:17.559 --> 00:33:20.119
I've been out with the dogs. Ruby hated every second
548
00:33:20.160 --> 00:33:24.279
of it, running from bush to tree, hiding behind banks,
549
00:33:24.319 --> 00:33:28.960
looking miserable the whole time as this icy wind, icy rain,
550
00:33:29.200 --> 00:33:32.920
like really stinging, icy cold rain. I was absolutely so wet.
551
00:33:33.440 --> 00:33:36.920
I could wring my gloves out, and my boots, my
552
00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:41.480
welly boots were they didn't leak, but my trousers were
553
00:33:41.519 --> 00:33:44.519
so wet. It was just and Ruby didn't like it.
554
00:33:44.559 --> 00:33:49.279
Got Jasper is more san fo about the whole thing.
555
00:33:49.319 --> 00:33:51.720
He's like, well, you know, here we are, it's raining.
556
00:33:51.920 --> 00:33:54.079
So what I really enjoyed it. It was fantastic.
557
00:33:54.240 --> 00:33:56.640
Thought, well, the trees will come down, some trees will
558
00:33:56.640 --> 00:34:00.039
come down with the wind. But it was awesome in
559
00:34:00.079 --> 00:34:02.039
the real sense of the word. Now, we haven't got
560
00:34:02.119 --> 00:34:04.359
Cali at the moment because she's sin season. She's coming
561
00:34:04.359 --> 00:34:08.280
out of season, so she can come back home soon.
562
00:34:08.440 --> 00:34:11.960
I've missed her over Christmas. I've had a really nice Christmas,
563
00:34:13.320 --> 00:34:15.599
so that's been good. Anyway, what we're talking about.
564
00:34:16.039 --> 00:34:18.079
I sat down so that I was explaining the rain.
565
00:34:18.199 --> 00:34:19.039
You know, some people when.
566
00:34:18.920 --> 00:34:21.199
They do these stories, they put rain noises in. I've
567
00:34:21.199 --> 00:34:23.440
done it, even you put artificial rain noises in, and
568
00:34:23.440 --> 00:34:24.719
people always complain about them.
569
00:34:24.760 --> 00:34:25.920
It doesn't sound like rain.
570
00:34:26.159 --> 00:34:29.480
I can't hear the story. They would say, yeah, okay, mate,
571
00:34:29.679 --> 00:34:32.840
I'd say to them, I've got the story without rain.
572
00:34:33.039 --> 00:34:36.719
Just don't be such a lazy dolt and look for it.
573
00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:39.360
They're all without the rain. The rains for the people
574
00:34:39.360 --> 00:34:41.559
who want the rain. There is also a version for
575
00:34:41.599 --> 00:34:44.320
you who don't want the rain. Simple search look for
576
00:34:44.360 --> 00:34:47.519
it anyway, But they don't. I mean, yeah, probably a
577
00:34:47.559 --> 00:34:48.840
lot of people do, and I only get the ones
578
00:34:48.840 --> 00:34:50.519
who are too lazy to search it as much easier
579
00:34:50.559 --> 00:34:55.599
to type some kind of response. What kind of man
580
00:34:55.639 --> 00:34:59.719
am I? I'm a misanthropist potentially these days as I'm
581
00:34:59.719 --> 00:35:03.039
getting older in Crabbier. Anyway, the themes that I thought
582
00:35:03.039 --> 00:35:06.719
were really interesting, there were two, really and they both
583
00:35:06.760 --> 00:35:08.480
involved a huge rabbit hole, and then I had to
584
00:35:08.559 --> 00:35:12.800
raim myself back in because number one is how does
585
00:35:12.840 --> 00:35:17.440
this compare to a detective story of the same period,
586
00:35:17.480 --> 00:35:19.920
So the Golden Age of detective fiction, how does this
587
00:35:19.960 --> 00:35:25.679
because in essence it presents as a detective story, doesn't it.
588
00:35:26.679 --> 00:35:29.760
So I thought, oh, that's really interesting structure, because of
589
00:35:29.760 --> 00:35:31.960
course I do. The Detective Channel just done a Sherlock
590
00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:37.639
Holmes story yesterday, the Busk and Valley Mystery, which was
591
00:35:37.679 --> 00:35:42.079
really good. So and I was thinking about how the
592
00:35:42.400 --> 00:35:45.079
homes story. But it's also true for all the Golden
593
00:35:45.079 --> 00:35:48.440
Age stuff. So first of all, in a detective story,
594
00:35:48.599 --> 00:35:50.800
you are presented with the facts of the murder or
595
00:35:50.840 --> 00:35:55.360
whatever of the crime. Yeah usually boom, and they're presented
596
00:35:56.159 --> 00:35:58.039
very often as a fated company. And then the role
597
00:35:58.039 --> 00:36:02.400
of the sleuth is to turn that around and upturn
598
00:36:02.480 --> 00:36:06.760
it and make what was so obvious the closed minded
599
00:36:06.840 --> 00:36:11.960
people completely the opposite through his or her brilliance. Okay,
600
00:36:12.320 --> 00:36:15.360
so but this starts off with the facts of the story.
601
00:36:15.440 --> 00:36:17.639
So we get that the facts of the murder of
602
00:36:17.679 --> 00:36:21.519
the first section is that Missus Yates's murder, and there
603
00:36:21.599 --> 00:36:24.320
is there are red herrings given there aren't there. So
604
00:36:25.320 --> 00:36:28.920
the two very things that they often do are.
605
00:36:29.840 --> 00:36:33.239
You know, the husband has an alibi, but does.
606
00:36:33.039 --> 00:36:36.039
He because we immediately think, oh, it's bound of being him,
607
00:36:36.039 --> 00:36:39.039
because it's already been set up for that. They're they're
608
00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:40.599
on bad terms and he's just given her a lot
609
00:36:40.639 --> 00:36:45.119
of money. So yeah, he's number one suspect. So that
610
00:36:45.239 --> 00:36:48.079
is exactly what would happen in the detective story. And
611
00:36:48.119 --> 00:36:52.159
then of course there is a two things are said.
612
00:36:52.840 --> 00:36:55.920
There are three things said really which become apparent later
613
00:36:56.639 --> 00:36:58.079
again like a detective story.
614
00:36:58.159 --> 00:37:00.159
So first of all, the servants always.
615
00:36:59.880 --> 00:37:02.599
Get grilling dough because they're poor people and they have
616
00:37:02.639 --> 00:37:04.639
to work for a living, so and they never see
617
00:37:04.639 --> 00:37:08.199
this kind of money that they're idle. Rich masters and
618
00:37:08.239 --> 00:37:11.599
mistresses flout, so you know they're bound to be tempted,
619
00:37:11.679 --> 00:37:15.039
so they get grilled. Now he says none of them
620
00:37:15.079 --> 00:37:17.039
appeared to have come into sudden affluence.
621
00:37:18.280 --> 00:37:19.960
Good does that settle it? Well?
622
00:37:20.039 --> 00:37:22.440
Later on we find out the murder of the chauffeur
623
00:37:23.039 --> 00:37:26.960
has been had the self possession not to spend his cash,
624
00:37:27.000 --> 00:37:30.519
and so that kind of that explains that little problem.
625
00:37:30.760 --> 00:37:32.760
And then there's the other thing about how and this
626
00:37:32.880 --> 00:37:35.840
is more subtle. The husband is driven up to London
627
00:37:35.840 --> 00:37:39.400
by the chauffeur. He stays overnight, and we're told that
628
00:37:39.440 --> 00:37:42.199
the chauffeur brings the car back because she's going to
629
00:37:42.239 --> 00:37:43.840
use it to get to the station the next day
630
00:37:43.920 --> 00:37:46.320
and he's going to meet her at Victoria station. Yeah,
631
00:37:46.440 --> 00:37:49.519
that is the setup. Now, what I didn't understand is
632
00:37:49.519 --> 00:37:53.039
why the chauffeur would come in by the window. But anyway,
633
00:37:53.159 --> 00:37:55.360
but I think, so far, so good. That is a
634
00:37:55.360 --> 00:37:58.039
detective story setup. And then the next part of the
635
00:37:58.079 --> 00:38:01.679
detective story is whereby we have the sleuth bit Poiro,
636
00:38:01.840 --> 00:38:08.000
Miss Marple, you know, Lord Peter Whimsey or anybody. Theyllock combs.
637
00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:11.519
Of course, they then go detecting, and usually in the classic,
638
00:38:11.679 --> 00:38:14.440
in the Golden Age of detection, what we see is
639
00:38:14.840 --> 00:38:17.960
it's it's impenetrable to us, me immortal. So we're looking
640
00:38:18.000 --> 00:38:20.599
on and we see the detective doing all sorts of
641
00:38:20.960 --> 00:38:24.679
weird clever stuff and we don't really understand why. And
642
00:38:25.280 --> 00:38:29.239
that is the next part. The parallel in this is
643
00:38:30.800 --> 00:38:34.719
them seeing into the mirror. So it's like a supernatural
644
00:38:34.840 --> 00:38:38.360
detection of psychic detection, although it's not active, well is
645
00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:40.559
it active on it it isn't partly active on their
646
00:38:40.599 --> 00:38:47.840
part because they seek it out, don't they. And so
647
00:38:47.960 --> 00:38:51.119
that is so far as parallel with Sherlock Holmes with
648
00:38:51.159 --> 00:38:54.679
his science. Instead of science, we have mysticism. Because remember,
649
00:38:54.719 --> 00:38:57.559
this is a guy who came from a deeply religious family,
650
00:38:58.480 --> 00:39:01.000
deeply spiritual family, and from what he's says in his stories,
651
00:39:01.079 --> 00:39:04.719
I think he probably also believed I've never read a
652
00:39:04.760 --> 00:39:10.519
biography of him. Perhaps should in the spiritual world that
653
00:39:10.639 --> 00:39:14.039
is the equivalent. Therefore, now very interesting thing. They look
654
00:39:14.039 --> 00:39:17.239
into the mirror of three main times, there is a
655
00:39:17.280 --> 00:39:19.679
fourth time when they don't look into it. It's the
656
00:39:19.800 --> 00:39:22.719
it's the denouement that the criminal looks into it and
657
00:39:23.440 --> 00:39:27.159
has apoplexy. And one thing I didn't think was very
658
00:39:27.679 --> 00:39:31.440
realistic is that if because detective story is very often
659
00:39:31.480 --> 00:39:34.199
they go to some pains to make them realistic in
660
00:39:34.239 --> 00:39:37.440
that the crime is one that's prosecutable, in that the
661
00:39:37.480 --> 00:39:40.119
police would act. Whereas I think if you've gone to
662
00:39:40.199 --> 00:39:44.320
the cops and said listen to Scotland Yard, not your
663
00:39:44.440 --> 00:39:48.199
ordinary local police station, but Scotland Yard, you send two
664
00:39:48.280 --> 00:39:51.880
blokes around, we presume the blokes to stand behind the curtain.
665
00:39:52.119 --> 00:39:54.280
I'll get the show for in at midnight, so you're
666
00:39:54.280 --> 00:39:58.960
going to be on overtime and he's going to fall down.
667
00:39:59.480 --> 00:40:01.719
You then everything you need to arrest him. I think
668
00:40:01.719 --> 00:40:04.360
they'd go I don't think so, in all sorts of
669
00:40:04.360 --> 00:40:06.639
for all sorts of reasons. I don't think we're going
670
00:40:06.719 --> 00:40:08.679
to do that. So I think that is perhaps a little.
671
00:40:09.760 --> 00:40:14.960
But one wonders how much contact Benson had Fred had
672
00:40:15.079 --> 00:40:18.360
with the workings of the actual police force, whereas I
673
00:40:18.400 --> 00:40:21.079
think in many cases, certainly with Dickens. Dickens used to
674
00:40:21.119 --> 00:40:23.960
go out with them, but you know, I think in
675
00:40:24.000 --> 00:40:28.039
many cases and certainly I interviewed Peter James a couple
676
00:40:28.079 --> 00:40:32.000
of months ago, Big crime writer, and he was saying
677
00:40:32.000 --> 00:40:36.599
that he actually goes out with the Brighton cops on
678
00:40:36.679 --> 00:40:40.039
the beat, and when they've got new techniques, they talked
679
00:40:40.039 --> 00:40:42.760
to about it. So I think crime writers, modern crime writers,
680
00:40:42.760 --> 00:40:46.400
and even proper crime writers, and I'm saying Benson wasn't
681
00:40:46.400 --> 00:40:49.800
one they spent time with the cops.
682
00:40:49.880 --> 00:40:51.519
I'm not sure that Benson did.
683
00:40:51.599 --> 00:40:53.639
I maybe proved wrong, as I said, I haven't read
684
00:40:53.679 --> 00:40:55.400
his biography, but it strikes me if he thinks the
685
00:40:55.440 --> 00:40:56.280
cops would turn up for.
686
00:40:56.280 --> 00:40:57.119
That, maybe not.
687
00:40:57.960 --> 00:41:00.960
And then so yeah, and then the final thing is
688
00:41:01.000 --> 00:41:04.360
that the deneuement, whereby the story is explained, and we
689
00:41:04.440 --> 00:41:08.159
do get that because they have the final vision, the
690
00:41:08.199 --> 00:41:12.280
third vision. Oh yeah, things come in threes in folklore
691
00:41:12.320 --> 00:41:15.639
and ghost stories. And they look once, twice, three times,
692
00:41:16.079 --> 00:41:18.920
and the third time is the solution. They go and
693
00:41:18.960 --> 00:41:23.320
they he recognizes the chauffeur, which is a massive coincidence, Really,
694
00:41:23.360 --> 00:41:26.159
isn't it that Hugh Granger would have engaged the very
695
00:41:26.239 --> 00:41:29.400
same man because the chauffeur in the mirror don't come together.
696
00:41:29.519 --> 00:41:31.480
He finds the mirror in Putney. It's got nothing to
697
00:41:31.480 --> 00:41:35.199
do with the chauffeur that he's also. But I suppose
698
00:41:35.239 --> 00:41:38.280
if you're a believer in the supernatural, you might suggest
699
00:41:38.280 --> 00:41:40.800
that the workings of the supernatural brought the two things together.
700
00:41:41.000 --> 00:41:42.679
So that's a bit of a get out of jail count.
701
00:41:43.159 --> 00:41:45.280
But anyway, so after the third time, they go in
702
00:41:45.320 --> 00:41:48.000
the picture post and they see the faces of the
703
00:41:48.079 --> 00:41:51.440
murdered woman and they know the chauffeur Bob's your uncle.
704
00:41:51.599 --> 00:41:55.599
And that is, in a sense an equivalent. So in
705
00:41:55.639 --> 00:41:58.119
a funny way, it is a parallel to the structure
706
00:41:58.119 --> 00:42:02.800
of a detective novel. But it's deduction through the spiritual.
707
00:42:02.880 --> 00:42:05.400
So that was my first. And there's a whole bunch
708
00:42:05.440 --> 00:42:09.239
of I mean, you know, Algernon and Backwood, et cetera.
709
00:42:09.280 --> 00:42:11.320
I was just looking into him, John Silence. There's a
710
00:42:11.320 --> 00:42:14.039
whole Kanaki the ghost Finder. There are a whole bunch
711
00:42:14.079 --> 00:42:19.079
of supernatural detective I've even got one in My City
712
00:42:19.079 --> 00:42:23.559
of Light, Unreal City, et cetera, et cetera trilogy, if
713
00:42:23.559 --> 00:42:28.719
you'd care to look that up anyway. The next So
714
00:42:28.760 --> 00:42:31.920
that that is a that's an essay in itself, isn't it.
715
00:42:31.960 --> 00:42:35.800
That is a PhD in itself. That the parallels between
716
00:42:35.800 --> 00:42:39.960
supernatural fiction and Golden Age fiction and where they both
717
00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:42.920
come from Poe ed Grahllan Poe of course, who wrote
718
00:42:42.960 --> 00:42:46.320
both detective stories and supernatural stories. And the other thing
719
00:42:46.360 --> 00:42:49.519
I wanted to say, the other mousehole or how I
720
00:42:49.519 --> 00:42:52.760
went down, was the role of cats in supernatural fiction.
721
00:42:53.400 --> 00:42:56.480
And it strikes me there's a poet called Christopher Smart
722
00:42:56.679 --> 00:43:01.559
in the eighteenth century. He wrote term a poem called
723
00:43:01.639 --> 00:43:05.119
Jubilati agno and it's for I will consider my cat Jeffrey.
724
00:43:05.559 --> 00:43:08.199
And he talks about for when his day's work is done,
725
00:43:08.239 --> 00:43:12.199
his business more properly begins, for he keeps the Lord's
726
00:43:12.239 --> 00:43:17.000
watch in the night against the adversary. For he counteracts
727
00:43:17.039 --> 00:43:22.559
the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes.
728
00:43:23.360 --> 00:43:26.320
So the cat has always been associated are very often
729
00:43:26.360 --> 00:43:30.440
associated with the supernatural. Cats have different roles to dogs,
730
00:43:30.480 --> 00:43:32.639
For example, in ghost stories. I've read a lot of
731
00:43:32.639 --> 00:43:35.920
ghost stories now, the role of a dog is usually
732
00:43:35.960 --> 00:43:39.519
sadly to die. The role of a cat is quite different.
733
00:43:39.559 --> 00:43:41.920
Not all. We had a story recently where the dog
734
00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:45.199
didn't die, and I'm like, hooray.
735
00:43:45.599 --> 00:43:47.559
But mostly the poor dog.
736
00:43:47.599 --> 00:43:49.760
If a dog appears in a ghost of horror story,
737
00:43:49.800 --> 00:43:51.679
its days are numbered.
738
00:43:52.119 --> 00:43:53.480
Cat's not so.
739
00:43:53.760 --> 00:43:59.320
In this story, cat is like Jeffrey Christopher Smart's cat,
740
00:43:59.360 --> 00:44:02.920
the first line of detection against other worldly forces. They're
741
00:44:03.000 --> 00:44:05.960
keen senses, attuned to the slightest disturbances in the veil
742
00:44:06.039 --> 00:44:08.639
between worlds. I think this is due to the habit
743
00:44:08.679 --> 00:44:10.840
of if you've ever had a cat, and you'll be
744
00:44:10.840 --> 00:44:12.519
sitting there and the cat will suddenly get up and
745
00:44:12.679 --> 00:44:14.559
look at the corner of the room, and You're like,
746
00:44:15.719 --> 00:44:17.800
what are you looking at? And the cat appears to
747
00:44:17.840 --> 00:44:21.000
see something, and I think maybe it does see ghosts,
748
00:44:21.119 --> 00:44:25.280
or maybe there's a mundane explanation, but I think that's
749
00:44:25.320 --> 00:44:29.320
why cats are given this role as sears and senses
750
00:44:29.360 --> 00:44:33.119
of the supernatural. And it struck me in the stories
751
00:44:33.119 --> 00:44:35.760
I've read out on the podcast that cats do this,
752
00:44:35.840 --> 00:44:37.000
and we have Cyrus.
753
00:44:37.320 --> 00:44:41.639
Cyrus is not a very endearing cat. I like.
754
00:44:43.119 --> 00:44:48.719
A lovely, warm, affectionate farm yard tom. Well not necessarily
755
00:44:48.719 --> 00:44:53.039
farm yard, but of that stock, a big lazy tom cat.
756
00:44:53.159 --> 00:44:57.920
Could be ginger, could be tabby, could be black, could
757
00:44:57.960 --> 00:45:00.559
be white, although they suffer from deafness. As my mother
758
00:45:00.760 --> 00:45:02.920
used to tell me, white cats are always deaf. Now
759
00:45:02.960 --> 00:45:05.480
this isn't true because I maybe said this before. I
760
00:45:05.559 --> 00:45:08.639
used to when I saw a white cat, I would
761
00:45:08.679 --> 00:45:11.599
try and creep up on it or make a noise
762
00:45:11.639 --> 00:45:14.119
behind its back to see if it turned round. Sometimes
763
00:45:14.119 --> 00:45:16.440
it did, sometimes they didn't. I don't think that was
764
00:45:16.480 --> 00:45:20.360
a massively scientific experiment, but apparently I met a guy
765
00:45:20.440 --> 00:45:22.079
with a big white dog the other day and he said.
766
00:45:21.960 --> 00:45:22.440
That's death.
767
00:45:22.719 --> 00:45:27.079
So I think potentially, you know, albino cats and dogs
768
00:45:27.199 --> 00:45:31.920
can be deaf, but maybe that just attunes their senses.
769
00:45:32.400 --> 00:45:33.639
So then I was thinking.
770
00:45:33.320 --> 00:45:36.079
Of, you know, if you I did Gerald Dudwell's The Entrance,
771
00:45:36.079 --> 00:45:38.639
which is set in a French chateau, and the cat
772
00:45:38.840 --> 00:45:43.000
becomes increasingly agitated and fearful as it senses the unseen men.
773
00:45:43.159 --> 00:45:46.280
This is a bit like so in that case, of course,
774
00:45:46.280 --> 00:45:50.159
the cat is frightened. Cyrus loves it. Cyrus loves it,
775
00:45:50.519 --> 00:45:53.840
and in fact he has Hugh Grainger Fred Benson has
776
00:45:53.920 --> 00:45:56.679
Hugh Granger said that cats love the dead. I thought
777
00:45:56.719 --> 00:46:01.320
that was a fantastically interesting thing to say. The rabbit
778
00:46:01.360 --> 00:46:04.360
hole there, so you know, there's definitely a bridge between
779
00:46:04.360 --> 00:46:10.880
the mundane and the supernatural. Of course, there's another cat
780
00:46:11.079 --> 00:46:13.480
that strikes in the Benson's the Room in the Tower
781
00:46:13.519 --> 00:46:17.360
where Hugh grangeur also is this cat that's related to
782
00:46:17.400 --> 00:46:20.760
Missus Stone, and it appears in the recurring dream and
783
00:46:20.760 --> 00:46:24.519
the real life medication. It's very agitated again, it appears
784
00:46:24.559 --> 00:46:26.480
to be the dog is frightened of the thing in
785
00:46:26.519 --> 00:46:28.519
the room in the tower, and the cat really likes it.
786
00:46:28.719 --> 00:46:32.000
So I think friend Benson had this idea that cats
787
00:46:32.320 --> 00:46:35.440
were in the league with the devil, or league with
788
00:46:35.480 --> 00:46:38.400
the powers of darkness, you know, and then of course
789
00:46:38.440 --> 00:46:41.599
we have you know, the black cat have done that
790
00:46:41.719 --> 00:46:44.840
a ground posed the black cat. Yeah, and he kills
791
00:46:44.880 --> 00:46:48.280
his pet Pluto. This is a grim story, a grim,
792
00:46:48.320 --> 00:46:50.519
grim story. And then we have lovecrafts the cats have
793
00:46:50.599 --> 00:46:54.000
all far. We have Stephen King's Pet Cemetery, the Family
794
00:46:54.000 --> 00:47:00.480
Cat Church. Who's so cats can be sensors of the supernatural.
795
00:47:00.239 --> 00:47:01.320
Harbingers of doom.
796
00:47:01.519 --> 00:47:06.039
That is to say, things happen that show the cat
797
00:47:06.119 --> 00:47:09.719
is involved in the doom is coming sort of idea
798
00:47:09.840 --> 00:47:15.079
rather than just sensing. It is in some sense an
799
00:47:15.079 --> 00:47:18.519
omen itself, a living omen. I haven't explained that very well,
800
00:47:18.559 --> 00:47:21.800
but it's like a Banshee's whale, isn't it Yeah, Rather
801
00:47:21.840 --> 00:47:24.000
than it's not just a sense, it's a warning in
802
00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:26.760
a sense, or it's actively involved with darkness. And I
803
00:47:26.800 --> 00:47:29.239
think this is associated with you know, in some of
804
00:47:29.239 --> 00:47:31.880
these stories, as we've said, the cats are quite the
805
00:47:31.920 --> 00:47:35.159
cats can be evil as well, and then we have
806
00:47:35.280 --> 00:47:38.280
them as active supernatural agents. And I think that is
807
00:47:38.360 --> 00:47:43.239
sort of Pluto really in the Black Cat Church in
808
00:47:43.400 --> 00:47:47.840
Pet Cemetery. And there's an Algernon Blackwood story called Angine Sorceres,
809
00:47:48.840 --> 00:47:51.840
which is a more complex role for the cats. It's
810
00:47:51.960 --> 00:47:54.679
in a French town where the inhabitants transform into cats
811
00:47:54.719 --> 00:47:58.039
and of course it was Catwoman. It was Natasha Kinski. Well,
812
00:47:58.079 --> 00:48:01.639
I was a young tager at that time, and it
813
00:48:01.719 --> 00:48:05.079
certainly had a profound effect on me and in fact
814
00:48:05.119 --> 00:48:07.400
Michelle five for as cat Woman. I think that's got
815
00:48:07.440 --> 00:48:08.960
nothing to do with the supernatural. I think that's got
816
00:48:08.960 --> 00:48:11.079
to do with other things, and that is another rabbit
817
00:48:11.119 --> 00:48:14.159
hole for me to go down. But you know, I
818
00:48:14.239 --> 00:48:17.559
thought the two themes that I picked up, one is
819
00:48:17.920 --> 00:48:21.559
the parallel between how do they relate to each other?
820
00:48:21.599 --> 00:48:25.119
They come from a common origin, but how does the
821
00:48:25.159 --> 00:48:27.440
detective story and the ghost story, because I've known both
822
00:48:27.480 --> 00:48:29.840
at the moment, as you know, how do they relate?
823
00:48:30.039 --> 00:48:31.000
That was interesting to me.
824
00:48:31.360 --> 00:48:34.599
And then this cat So I think if you do
825
00:48:34.679 --> 00:48:37.400
want to do your pH d on this, I think
826
00:48:37.440 --> 00:48:40.760
the role of cats in supernatural fiction, and potentially a
827
00:48:40.760 --> 00:48:43.559
little subsection on comparing the role of cats with the
828
00:48:43.639 --> 00:48:46.519
roles of dogs in supernatural fiction, because there will be
829
00:48:46.599 --> 00:48:50.159
other cases that the dogs have a more active I mean,
830
00:48:50.199 --> 00:48:52.400
there's a howd of the basketvills as well. Oh, their
831
00:48:52.440 --> 00:48:54.639
mine's just tripped off. I think it's time for me
832
00:48:54.679 --> 00:48:57.599
to stop. The storm is blowing. There are things to do.
833
00:48:57.679 --> 00:49:00.440
I've I've got to produce this. I've got to do
834
00:49:00.480 --> 00:49:02.360
the thumbnail. I've got to do the blurb, I've got
835
00:49:02.360 --> 00:49:04.840
to do all sorts of stuff. So my work is
836
00:49:04.880 --> 00:49:07.480
not finished, but my blubbering is