Chapter VIII

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Episode Transcript

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Chapter eight of Sinister House by LelandHall. This LibriVox recording is in the
public domain. Read by Ben Tucker. Chapter eight change my opinions, as
if I wouldn't have been glad enoughto change them. Heaven knows, I
wasn't set up about having seen aghost. Why if only his telephoning to

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New York could have laid it andhave averted the suffering and torment of the
next two nights, I'd have recanted, I'd have denied myself. I'd have
said my name is Jones while allthe time at Smith. But of course
I did not know what was instore for all of us, and it
wouldn't have done any good even ifI'd said I was Jesse James. Believe
me. I was miserable, that'sall, just plain miserable and sort of

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loco with it. However, Iwon't hold up the rest of the story
telling you what a rotten night Ihad the next two or to make it
look like I was going to saythirty cents, but I guess I mean
like a ten dollar gold piece.I do remember, though, that Annette
was awfully anxious about me, andsince the more I tried to explain the

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more anxious she grew. I justsubsided, but we kept the lights going
until after two. I liked thelights because while they were going, I
didn't have such terrible pictures of whatJulia might be going through. It must
have had its comical side, Annettestealing an anxious look at me every two
or three minutes, I looking mournfullyat her, and neither of us saying

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much. After we put out thelights, we both lay in our beds
without moving until about four. Iheard Annette get up and go to the
window. Haven't you been asleep,dear? I whispered, what's the matter.
I can't sleep for worrying. You'vefrightened the life out of me,
Pierre. I don't know whether yourmind's all right or not. You sound

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crazy. You looked wild tonight.You ought to see a doctor. And
Julia maybe she's crazy too. Idon't think you ought to go there anymore.
But she needs me and you too. She and Eric are I sprately
afflicted. We mustn't go back onthem. We mustn't withhold anything of comfort
or strength to her. Don't beafraid. Let me remind you that it

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wasn't pleasant. I cannot remember muchthat happened the next day. I remember
that it was fair that the sunshone with a golden radiance in which no
ghost could survive. Giles was atbreakfast with us, though I found out
later that he had not gone tobed at all. I tried to get
him to come with my wife,the children and me, but he would
not be prevailed upon, and Idare say we had a jolly or time

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without him. We had a picnicsomewhere in away from the river. We
did not take the highway that ranpast Eric's house. It was near a
hay mow, I think, againstthe side of which I slept in the
warm sun for a couple of hours. If Annette read to Bobby at all,
it was from little men, orit may have been little women.
Though I passed a not too melancholyday. As we started home before sundown,

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I began to feel depressed. Wepicked up doctor Gresham by the roadside
on the way back. He wasthe only physician in Foresby, and his
card broke and down out in thecountry. I remember we went a mile
out of our way to take himto his house, and one or the
other of us said half seriously thathe hoped there be no sickness in the
outlying parts of the community. Thatnight arrived home, Felicia told us that

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Missus Greer had telephoned in the afternoonto ask us over for dinner that evening.
It was a trial. I didnot want to go, and my
wife was all four telephoning a flatrefusal, but remembering the straits Julia was
in, I felt it would benothing short of treachery to go back on
her. So Annette and I bathed, kissed the children good night, and
ran over in the ford. Thenight was unseasonably cold and clear as crystal,

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but with no moon and only afew stars, a real darkness lay
over the land. We had nothingto say to each other as we spun
along the flat highway. Eric greetedus, and we found Giles seated before
the grate in the living room,in which there was a bright yellow fire
of kennel coal the only light inthe room. We asked him how he
had spent the day, but hepreferred not to tell us until later.

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And while we were waiting for Juliato come down, Eric led me out
on the veranda over the cliff,just to see how black and mysterious.
The river looked down in its bed. There was no trace of twilight in
the western sky, but there wasa single bright star there, and looking
far below, I could see itsreflection in the invisible water. My foot
kicked against a stone on the verandafloor. Absent mindedly, I picked it

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up and leaned over the veranda raillet it drop from loosened fingers. The
ping of its hitting the boulders belowand a faint splash were just audible in
the otherwise holy, silent night.Why was it that, in the midst
of such tranquility I had a suddensense of evils being done? I straightened
and turned round sharply, man's naturalphysical reaction to the spur of a sudden

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unpleasant thought. Eric was just onthe point of speaking. He had actually
said a word or two which Imissed. I think he meant to unburden
himself of let it go. Ihave no proof my sudden movement put an
end to it, anyhow, What'sthe matter, Pierre, he asked me
quietly, Nothing, I responded.The side of the house was almost blotted

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out in the darkness, but lookingrestlessly toward the north, I saw a
faint colorless glow. It seemed tocome from a window in a bow that
was built out from the side theveranda did not run that far. Against
the uncertain light, I saw somethingmoving, swinging slowly. It was a
shutter, and as there was hardlya breath of air stirring, the movement

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struck me as queer and mysterious.I called Eric's attention to it. He
started towards it, and I followedhis vague form. I wonder, He
said, what is loosen to thatshutter? That is a window in the
room to which Julia has taken herstrange aversion. We went to the end
of the veranda and he leaned out, trying to touch the shutter, but

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could not reach it. There's someone in the room, I suggested.
That cannot be, He replied,the doors always locked. You know you
heard no one is allowed to gointo that room. But the light,
I said, there's no light,look for yourself. True enough, there
was no longer any light. Ericlit a match or two, which he

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held out as far towards the windowas he could reach, and in the
feeble glow of which he made outto his own satisfaction that the bolt on
the shutter had not broken or rustedaway. Julia must have sent some one
in there to day, he concluded. At that moment, someone stepped out
on the veranda from the living room. It was Julia herself. Turning we
saw her one side all white andbright, the other black and invisible.

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She hesitated a moment, and thencame quickly towards us. Eric, She
cried, what are you doing?She had a fit of coughing. Eric
took her by the shoulders and marchedher back. Whence she had come,
I'm doing nothing, he replied,to alarm you. You are not to
come out of doors without a rap, my dear, you will have pneumonia.
Pierre discovered that the shudder to theforbidden room is open, and eyes

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I was looking at it and wonderingwho could have opened it. By that
time we were going into the houseagain. Julia had lighted all the candles
in the living room. It waswarm and pleasant and should have been cheerful.
But turning round from latching the windowthrough which we had come in,
I caught a look of mingled incredulityand fear on Julia's face. No one
has been in that room, shewas whispering to her husband. The bolt

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must have rusted away. The bolt'sall right, he said, but you'll
have to let me into the place. Deer Eric, I beg of you
not to night, Not to night. I don't feel well, you know.
Humor me, dearest, promise notto night, silly girl. Not
to night then, or any nighttill you wish it. He stooped as

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if to kiss her, but sheturned abruptly from him and went to chat
with my wife, and I sawhis arms fall to his side in a
gesture of hopelessness. Later, whilewe were at dinner, I could not
keep my eyes from the blue velvetcurtain on the wall opposite me. It
hung motionless, obscure in the candlelight, apparently without significance to at least
apart from the consciousness of the othersin the room. Only when the old

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servant passed it on her rounds ofservice at the table did I see it
stir. But I knew there wasa doubly locked door behind it, and
that in the room behind the doorthere was something. Julia had caused a
fear. I could not but askmyself again and again who or what had
opened the shutter I could not butwonder if the swaying of that thing I

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had so dimly perceived in the outdoordarkness were not an evil omen In spite
of my uneasiness, the dinner progressedsmoothly. I dare say, I ate
my share of the good hot foodtoo, no matter what my apprehensions.
Well, we left the dining room, five of us, and made our
ceremonious way down the narrow rose coloredhall corridor and turned into the living room.

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Julia was keen on ventilation, andshe had left one of the windows
open during dinner so that the roomwas fresh and cool. I can see
now as she went to close it, and as she came back to take
her seat on a cricket by thefire of cannel coal. It was a
pretty scene. What would the candlelight, the dancing yellow flames in the little
grate, and the dancing side showand miniature shining from the polished rosewood of

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the piano across the room, thecomfortable chairs and sofas with their bright cushions,
the subdued colors of the hangings,through many of which there ran dull
threads of gold that glimmered with reflectedlight. It was a long, narrow
room of knick knacks and luxury,of beauty, and shadow, of softness
and glow, and above all,of comfort awaiting. I say, we

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left the dining room, five ofus, and came to this living room,
Giles holding aside the portier for usto pass in, but he had
no sooner let it drop behind himself, the last to enter. Than I
knew there were six persons in thatroom. I felt it as you count
on your fingers, five, asyou feel in every nerve in your body
six. Perhaps I shouldn't imply sixpersons, five persons and the specter invisible

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until later in the evening, butpresent all the time. I did not
need to look over my shoulder forit. I knew when it changed its
place. I knew that for sometime it paid no attention to us,
but wandered aimlessly along the shadowy wallsand across the space behind us. Then
it began to disturb Julia and me, though still invisible. First, I

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felt a fine but penetrating draft ofcold air upon the back of my neck.
Searching the inlet, I left myseat and went to the window that
gave on the veranda over the river. It was tightly fastened, and the
curtains before it did not sway ahair's breath. No air blew in there
from the outside. Besides, therewas no wind anyhow. As I came

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back to my place on the sofa, Julia glanced up at me, and
her look told me that it wouldbe useless to try to shut off that
discomforting draft. It came through nowindow, it had no direction. Yet
when I settled down on the sofa, my neck below the back of it.
From time to time the hair onmy head was slightly moved, not
by such a disturbance of air aswould be created by the passage of a

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person behind me, but as ifa mischievous sprite were blowing on it.
Nothing could have been slighter or moreswiftly passing. Yet nothing in that warm,
fire lit room, and in themidst of a company apparently absorbed in
intercourse, could have been more unnaturallyand more insistently tormenting, or more chilling.

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Over our coffee, we talked ofnothing at all. If I was
ill at ease, then it wasonly from vague forebodings or troubled imaginings of
what Julia might be dreading, oreven already suffering. I knew the specter
was in our midst, I hadnot begun to suffer from it for a
minute or two. After the oldservant had taken her cups away too,
the thing refrained from actual contact withme. Julia knocked the black lumps of

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coal into smaller pieces, from whichbright yellow flames burst out, illuminating our
faces. Oddly, Annette took upher knitting. Giles lit a cigar.
It was all peaceful enough. Iremember that Eric sat behind us, all
farthest from the fire, into whichhe gazed meditatively most of the evening.
Anette tells me, only she andGiles could watch his face. But Annette

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asked Giles quietly to tell us nowhow he had passed the day. And
it was then I got up andwent to the window to see if it
was open. It was then Ifirst felt that draft. I think it
must have been the touch of Isee spectral fingers. I was able to
listen to Giles's tail until this touchbecame something worse. I made the greatest

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effort of will I was capable ofto follow him all along. I suspected
that he was putting Eric through aninquisition, but later later I both heard
and did not hear. In responseto Annette, Giles said he had a
very interesting day, but before recountingit, he began to praise Julia for
the charm of her house, whatshe had been able to make out of

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such a freakish old summer cottage builtby a man who he had learned,
had been noted for a cold senseof piety rather than a warm sense of
beauty, and had certainly bequeathed herlittle to work on. I recall his
accent on the word it was agood thing for the commuters who lived in
foresby that Julia had come among them. Her influence would not be wholly lost.

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By the way, and he spoketo Eric, not Julia, how
did you ever happen to come tothis part of the world greer? You
can imagine that Annette and I prickedup our ears at that. As for
Eric, Annette told me afterwards thathe never moved a muscle except to raise
his eyebrows, as if surprised thatGiles should suddenly drag him thus into a

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conversation in which he had had buta drowsy interest. He answered lazily clearing
his throat a little. I don'tremember Pharaoh, just how it was,
asked Julia, do you, deartruly, I believe that the past was
dead for him by force of hiswill to live. He had made it
as if it had never been.He denied it to himself, and if

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he denied it to himself, itwas no lie for him to deny it
to others. But Giles kept prottingand prodding into it, and was to
do even more. I know thatit's sudden coming to life again, drove
Eric. For the time being.Mad, Julia could have had no suspicion
of what Giles was doing. Sheremembered how Eric and she had been led
into this part of the world whentowards the end of their honeymoon they were

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wondering where to settle down. Dearme, there was no talk this night,
as there use once to be abuilding, a nest, and being
so full of happy hopes that eventhe houses sang to them. The song
in this house had been abominable,but some one had told them about Stanton,
so we just came down to havea look round and stumbled on this

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house. Fancy that, said Giles, perhaps not heeding the weary tone of
Julia's voice. I never heard ofStanton until I came to Foresby, though
I had seen the Foresby scheme moreor less advertised. Some one in New
York told you. I suppose itis hard to think that it would occur
to a New Yorker to recommend sucha sleepy, out of the way village.

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I don't remember who it was.Julia returned without much interest. As
a matter of fact, some onetold Eric, and he told me she
had a fit of painful coughing.Eric started from his chair and left the
room to fetch her a warmer shawl. By the time he had come back,
I had changed the conversation. Helaid the shawl he brought with him
tenderly about his wife's shoulders, andthen took his seat again quietly. Giles

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began then to talk to us aboutreligious mania. Judging by Eric's face,
Annette told me his thoughts might havebeen far away from the talk. He
didn't move in his chair and continuedto look meditatively into the fire. It
seemed to me a silly thing forGiles to begin holding forth upon, but
he was leading up to his interestingexperience of the afternoon. I heard only

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a little of it. The intruderwas beginning to bother me in Stanton.
That very afternoon, Giles had comeacross an extraordinary human creature, whom,
for lack of any other word,he must call a girl. Though her
face was not without a regularity ofform and feature, she had appeared to
him not more than half human.She was abnormally blonde. That struck one

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first that in the peculiar, somewhathypnotic stare of her eyes he had heard
and seen her speaking in the villagestore. And when she had opened her
thin lips he saw that her teethwere white and small, but widely separated
from each other. He got amost disagreeable impression of cruelty and wickedness under
anemic but constant sanctimony. My recollectionsbeyond this point are uncertain and intolerable to

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me. All the time I waslistening to Giles, it seemed to me
that the room grew darker and darker, and that the sixth presence materialized,
yet took on no substance became visible, remained transparent. And if I had
any sensation but that of horror,it was a longing in some way to
stand by Julia. Annette tells methat the room certainly was shadowy, some

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of the candles had burned out,but it was very warm, not cold.
Giles talked in his usual voice andvividly, not as I thought,
in whispers, and suggestively. Shecouldn't see his face very well in the
firelight, but she remembers how theblue smoke from his cigar showed up,
and she thinks maybe that was theghost in my mind. Julia turned round

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towards him once or twice, Yes, but she couldn't then see the expression
of her face, for it wasin shadow. She shouldn't have said it
was horror struck anyhow, It couldn'thave been, for there was nothing horrible
in what Giles said. No,Julia certainly did not fall in trying to
get to Eric once she half losther balance on the cricket. Maybe Annette

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thinks she was trying to change herposition and her dress caught her and then
she put a hand down on thefloor to keep from falling off. Now,
the room was certainly warm and verycomfortable. What Giles said was very
interesting, yes, but not verypleasant, not very nice. I looked
half asleep, in a position thatyou might think, Annette granted a little
stiff if your attention were called toit, but not enough to notice otherwise.

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I tell you my recollections of therest of that evening at Eric's are
intolerable to me. I will notput myself, even in imagination, back
in that room, warm and charmingas it was. One night last winter,
Annette and I went to visit someancient relatives of mine who lived in
an old house near Boston. Itwas a cold night, and we sat
with the other guests before the greathung in under an old fashioned white marble

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half moon chimney piece. The firewas of kennel coal, and there was
no other light in the room.I stood it as long as I could,
and then, knowing well I shouldbe branded as a harsh and crude
New Yorker by the sentimental or wasit thrifty gathering, I demanded gaslight of
my ancients. I would not sit, no matter what the cost to my

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reputation, in a circle of facesdistorted and made luridly strange by the dancing
light of cannel coal, even inthat room where sanctimony masked nothing more hateful
than complacency. I had already begunto feel that deadly, icy malice was
taking the shape of a woman lopingfrom corner to corner and stealthily along the

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shadowy walls. Ten minutes more ofthat uncertain light than I should have felt
hands about my person, or shouldhave seen them at the throat of my
wife. No, not even inmy imagination will I put myself back in
the living room of Eric's sinister housefor those few hours, warm and cozy
as they say it was that night, when without the air was sharp and

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still and frosty. I drove aNet and Giles home in the Ford.
They were tired. I was exhausted. None of us had slept the night
before. Yet Giles would have somebeer and a cigarette. He struck me
as boisterous and obtrusive. Well,he said to me, what did you
think of my story? I didn'thear what you said, I replied,

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yawning. I know. Nevertheless,I am on the track of what of
what is back of Eric Greer?Look here, I said, but without
much fire. If there's wrong aboutEric, he's been the victim, and
God knows still is the victim notthe wrong doer. I don't want to
hear any more about it. It'stoo horrible what I know. I'm going

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to bed, to bed. Iwalked the floor for a couple of hours.
Annette brought me some whisky, muchwhisky. She was as calm and
as patient as a woman well canbe. She undressed and got into bed
and went on with her knitting.Her eyes grew more and more anxious,
till at last I caught a lookin them which made me ashamed of my
frenzy, yet all by my innerself, so to speak. I was

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shocked and desperate. I never havebeen able to see animals or persons suffer,
and the thought of the hideous tortureJulia might be undergoing, even as
I paced up and down the room, all but unmanned me. I had
seen them, yes, both thewoman and the little old man, trying
to strangle her. And Annette thoughtshe had tried merely to change her position

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on the cricket. You must imagine. The horrible picture came back before me
again and again. I knew howthose hands could clutch and pinch. They
had been on me. But Igive you my word, I was nothing,
nothing, It was Julia, highspirited, frail little thing, sick

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too passionately in love with her husband, her heart crying out for him in
her mortal need, yet wrenched,twisted, and beaten back by unutterably malevolent
fiends that loped about him. Shewas so terribly alone. Eric, who
would have given his life blood dropby drop for her, was sitting in
the dark, wounded himself by herdumb actions which he could only misunderstand,

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helpless to protect, even had heknown himself the instrument for her torture.
Whenever he moved, but for mywife's look, I would have dashed my
head against the wall. Instead,I threw myself on the floor beside her,
and hid my face on her bed. She kept on knitting. I
heard the low sound of her needles, but I began, after a few

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moments to feel the beneficence of herlook. We waited a long time in
silence. Then I said to her, are our children all right? Yes,
dear, she replied softly. Theyare sleeping peacefully, as you and
I should be. We must nevertake them over there again. We shall
not need to. What do youmean? This cannot go on much longer?

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Pierre, Julia is going away.She told me in confidence to night
they're going to give up the oldhouse at once, and Eric he will
go with her. I presume,no, no, no, that cannot
be again. There was a longsilence between us. The clock downstairs struck
two, very faint. Through wallsand closed doors, I heard the regular

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comical sound of Giles's snoring. Anerrant breeze came in through the window of
our chamber. Even at this mysterioushour, there was movement over the darkened
face of the earth. Annette,I asked, what was Giles talking about
about horrid, abnormal and secret people? You know who? The father and
the daughter insane, I guess,though very pious. The girl Giles saw

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in Stanton. You heard that,didn't you is the cousin and spit image
of the other girl, Morgan Snartand his daughter. They were there to
night. What do you mean,oh, Annette, You must believe what
I say. When Giles began tospeak, the woman stood behind Eric's chair.
I didn't look, but I feltand I know she was there,

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and that she kept watching Julia andme. The little old man came in
later and took his place behind Giles. He rubbed his hands all the time,
and looked down at Julia, oftenready to grab her if she tried
to get to Eric. Think howterrible for a sensitive man like Eric,
if he ever had to be withthings like them when they were alive.

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Annette said nothing, indeed, whatcould she say. Except for the faint,
regular sound of Giles's snoring, thehouse was silent as death. But
after a while Annette spoke again.Eric didn't seem very much interested, She
said, he was rather cynical.He was nervous about Julia. She had
a bad cold, and Giles boredhim. I guess he got restless after

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a while and began to clasp andunclasp his hand. No wonder. Giles
told some gruesome things, how theystarved themselves and their animals, and how
though they were pillars of the churchin that neighborhood, there was some horrid
secret stories about the girl's being cruel. Some one had seen her, Annette
I whispered. That's when they moved, when Giles told about her beating the

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dog to death. That's when theold man made a sign to the woman,
and they got ready to leap atJulia. Did they asked Annette as
if sickened at all this, Erichated it. Did you see them attack
Julia before heaven? I did,Annette. They sprang when Giles said their

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name was Snart. No, dear, said my wife soothingly. That's when
Eric jumped up out of his chairto put an end to Giles's talk.
Oh my Peter, dear, letus not talk any more about it.
Eric wouldn't like it. He hatedit. Come, you will only make
yourself sick. They are going awayin a day or two. You've been

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thinking so much about that old housethat you've got a kink in your brain.
Julia's all right. She's got aheavy coal, that's all. And
what could she expect from living insuch a damp, old place, a
Nette, I said, looking upat her. I have seen what I
have seen. Do not talk aboutit, Do not mention any more horrors.
I can't bear it. And Ihave heard what I have heard,

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a Nette. Julia is in themost deadly and unnatural peril. She is
sick and weak. Besides, theremay be a fiendish death in that house.
But they are going away, Itell you, day after tomorrow.
If Eric goes too with her,Good God Pierre you don't mean that he
will murder her. She leaned forwardover me, and I reached up for
her hands. There was a moment'shush, and then Heaven save us,

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we heard the terrified screams of oursun startled the Nette clutched me and almost
stifled me. Then as I brokeaway and got to my feet, her
mother's and stinked rose up within her, and she sprang out of bed and
ran barefooted into the children's bedroom.I was hardly behind her. Bobby's screams
had wakened the baby, and shetoo began to cry. All in the
dark. My wife tore the littleboy from his bed and hugged him to

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her breast. She could not wakehim. He yelled the louder and beat
at her with his fists. Iswitched on the lights. Annette was walking
up and down like a wild,fierce woman, my buxom merry wife,
her hair flying about her, herbare feet falling soundless like the pads of
a lioness's feet. Go away,bad dream boo boo, go away,

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bad wicked dream boo. There there, my darling boy. Mother's here.
Mother will kill the bad dream.Mother will something as it were, flashed
in my brain. I knew sayingthat the boy might be in pain,
and that I would get hot water. I went out of the room,
but I had no sooner closed thedoor behind me, as if to keep
the sound of the screaming from Gilesthan I darted into the northeast room,

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ripped off the shade from the window, and looked out. A waning moon
shed light upon the highway. Andon the highway I saw a man,
hatless, running towards our house.He was almost here. If ever he
got to my house, I knewmy son might not survive the force of
the evil that hounded him. Iraced downstairs. The bolt on the front

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door stuck. My fingers were allthumbs. I thought I heard his steps
on the granalithic walk, and Ithink I cried out in anguish of fear,
Keep away, keep away. Iswung the door open so that it
crashed back against the wall. Irushed out and down the walk to the
road. Eric ran into my arms. He struggled to get by me into
the house, but I held him. Be quiet, I whispered, you

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can't go in there, for God'ssake. What's the matter? He was
horribly out of breath. His facehad the look of a man mortally stricken.
In the wan moonlight, I sawthe tears streaming down his cheeks.
It's Julia, she's sick. Ourtelephone out of order. Let me use
yours. I was terribly alert.I pushed Eric away from our house and

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led him in a wide circle roundto the garage and back, telling him
the doctor's car was broken down,that he must go himself and my ford.
We pushed the Ford to the streetalong the smooth cement driveway. I
didn't want a Nette to know thenoise of the engine in the back yard.
I cranked it. I shoved Ericinto the front seat. I pushed
the car off, and when Isaw him well down the road, I
went back into the house. Upstairs, in the children's room, there was

(29:23):
my son, laughing in his mother'sarms. I had saved him, but
it was almost the last straw forme that night. And Nette said almost
nothing to me until we were returnedto our own room, and then,
seeing that my face was terribly pale, she was frightened at her words of
solicitude. I sat down on mybed and broke down, whereupon treating me
as if I too had had abad dream. She patted my bent shoulders,

(29:47):
caressed me, knelt down and tookoff my shoes and stockings, and
I, a grown man, lether do it. She all but undressed
me, and then she made meget into the bath tub, which she
had filled with hot water, justhot enough, because Annette always does things
just right. When she tucked meinto bed and gave me some hot whiskey
and lemon, I didn't know whetherI was laughing or crying. Nothing up

(30:11):
to that stage in the affair hadmade me feel so bad as barring Eric
from my house had made me feel. I would not have told my wife
of it, for anything, Idid not wish her to turn against the
unfortunate fellow. But she found out. She looked out the window and saw
the garage door open. Then Ihad to tell her, for she would
have gone down to close it andwould then have found the car gone.

(30:34):
She hid her feelings. I didnot know whether she associated Eric's comings with
Bobby's bad dream. She would notlet me talk at all. I remember,
though, the last thing I saidto her before I went to sleep,
I said to her, squeezing herhand, well, my Dear,
you don't see what Julius sees inthat house after all end of chapter eight