The butcher's boy came whistling down the
lane to deliver the rump-steak or mutton-chop I had decided on for
dinner; the greengrocer delivered his vegetables; the cheesemonger took
solemn affidavit concerning the freshness of his stale eggs and the
superior quality of a curious article which he called country butter,
and declared came from a particular dairy famed for the excellence of
its produce; the milkman's yahoo sounded cheerfully in the morning
hours; and the letter-box was filled with cards from all sorts and
descriptions of people--from laundresses to wine merchants, from
gardeners to undertakers.
The doors now never shut nor opened of their own accord. A great peace
seemed to have settled over River Hall.
It was all too peaceful, in fact. I had gone to the place to hunt a
ghost, and not even the ghost of a ghost seemed inclined to reveal
itself to me.
10. THE WATCHER IS WATCHED
I have never been able exactly to satisfy my own mind as to the precise
period during my occupation of the Uninhabited House when it occurred to
me that I was being watched. Hazily I must have had some consciousness
of the fact long before I began seriously to entertain the idea.
I felt, even when I was walking through London, that I was being often
kept in sight by some person.
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