THE TURN OF THE SCREW The story had held us , round the fire , sufficiently breathless , but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome , as , on Christmas Eve in an old house , a strange tale should essentially be , I remember no comment uttered till somebody happened to say that it was the only case he had met in which such a visitation had fallen on a child .
The case , I may mention , was that of an apparition in just such an old house as had gathered us for the occasion -- an appearance , of a dreadful kind , to a little boy sleeping in the room with his mother and waking her up in the terror of it ; waking her not to dissipate his dread and soothe him to sleep again , but to encounter also , herself , before she had succeeded in doing so , the same sight that had shaken him .
It was this observation that drew from Douglas -- not immediately , but later in the evening -- a reply that had the interesting consequence to which I call attention .
Someone else told a story not particularly effective , which I saw he was not following .
This I took for a sign that he had himself something to produce and that we should only have to wait .
We waited in fact till two nights later ; but that same evening , before we scattered , he brought out what was in his mind .
“ I quite agree -- in regard to Griffin ’s ghost , or whatever it was -- that its appearing first to the little boy , at so tender an age , adds a particular touch .
But it ’s not the first occurrence of its charming kind that I know to have involved a child .
If the child gives the effect another turn of the screw , what do you say to TWO children -- ? ”
“ We say , of course , ” somebody exclaimed , “ that they give two turns !
Also that we want to hear about them . ”
I can see Douglas there before the fire , to which he had got up to present his back , looking down at his interlocutor with his hands in his pockets .
“ Nobody but me , till now , has ever heard .
It ’s quite too horrible . ”
This , naturally , was declared by several voices to give the thing the utmost price , and our friend , with quiet art , prepared his triumph by turning his eyes over the rest of us and going on : “ It ’s beyond everything .
Nothing at all that I know touches it . ”
“ For sheer terror ? ”
I remember asking .
He seemed to say it was not so simple as that ; to be really at a loss how to qualify it .
He passed his hand over his eyes , made a little wincing grimace .
“ For dreadful -- dreadfulness ! ”
“ Oh , how delicious ! ”
cried one of the women .
He took no notice of her ; he looked at me , but as if , instead of me , he saw what he spoke of .
“ For general uncanny ugliness and horror and pain . ”
“ Well then , ” I said , “ just sit right down and begin . ”
He turned round to the fire , gave a kick to a log , watched it an instant .
Then as he faced us again : “ I ca n’t begin .
I shall have to send to town . ”
There was a unanimous groan at this , and much reproach ; after which , in his preoccupied way , he explained .
“ The story ’s written .
It ’s in a locked drawer -- it has not been out for years .
I could write to my man and enclose the key ; he could send down the packet as he finds it . ”
It was to me in particular that he appeared to propound this -- appeared almost to appeal for aid not to hesitate .
He had broken a thickness of ice , the formation of many a winter ; had had his reasons for a long silence .
The others resented postponement , but it was just his scruples that charmed me .
I adjured him to write by the first post and to agree with us for an early hearing ; then I asked him if the experience in question had been his own .
To this his answer was prompt .
“ Oh , thank God , no ! ”
“ And is the record yours ?
You took the thing down ? ”
“ Nothing but the impression .
I took that HERE ” -- he tapped his heart .
“ I ’ve never lost it . ”
“ Then your manuscript -- ? ”
“ Is in old , faded ink , and in the most beautiful hand . ”
He hung fire again .
“ A woman ’s .
She has been dead these twenty years .
She sent me the pages in question before she died . ”
They were all listening now , and of course there was somebody to be arch , or at any rate to draw the inference .
But if he put the inference by without a smile it was also without irritation .
“ She was a most charming person , but she was ten years older than I .
She was my sister ’s governess , ” he quietly said .
“ She was the most agreeable woman I ’ve ever known in her position ; she would have been worthy of any whatever .
It was long ago , and this episode was long before .
I was at Trinity , and I found her at home on my coming down the second summer .
I was much there that year -- it was a beautiful one ; and we had , in her off-hours , some strolls and talks in the garden -- talks in which she struck me as awfully clever and nice .
Oh yes ; do n’t grin : I liked her extremely and am glad to this day to think she liked me , too .
If she had n’t she would n’t have told me .
She had never told anyone .
It was n’t simply that she said so , but that I knew she had n’t .
I was sure ; I could see .
You ’ll easily judge why when you hear . ”
“ Because the thing had been such a scare ? ”
He continued to fix me .
“ You ’ll easily judge , ” he repeated : “ YOU will . ”
I fixed him , too .
“ I see .
She was in love . ”
He laughed for the first time .
“ You ARE acute .
Yes , she was in love .
That is , she had been .
That came out -- she could n’t tell her story without its coming out .
I saw it , and she saw I saw it ; but neither of us spoke of it .
I remember the time and the place -- the corner of the lawn , the shade of the great beeches and the long , hot summer afternoon .
It was n’t a scene for a shudder ; but oh -- ! ”
He quitted the fire and dropped back into his chair .
“ You ’ll receive the packet Thursday morning ? ”
I inquired .
“ Probably not till the second post . ”
“ Well then ; after dinner -- ” “ You ’ll all meet me here ? ”
He looked us round again .
“ Is n’t anybody going ? ”
It was almost the tone of hope .
“ Everybody will stay ! ”
“ _ I _ will ” -- and “ _ I _ will ! ”
cried the ladies whose departure had been fixed .
Mrs. Griffin , however , expressed the need for a little more light .
“ Who was it she was in love with ? ”
“ The story will tell , ” I took upon myself to reply .
“ Oh , I ca n’t wait for the story ! ”
“ The story WO N’T tell , ” said Douglas ; “ not in any literal , vulgar way . ”
“ More ’s the pity , then .
That ’s the only way I ever understand . ”
“ Wo n’t YOU tell , Douglas ? ”
somebody else inquired .
He sprang to his feet again .
“ Yes -- tomorrow .
Now I must go to bed .
Good night . ”
And quickly catching up a candlestick , he left us slightly bewildered .
From our end of the great brown hall we heard his step on the stair ; whereupon Mrs. Griffin spoke .
“ Well , if I do n’t know who she was in love with , I know who HE was . ”
“ She was ten years older , ” said her husband .
“ Raison de plus -- at that age !
But it ’s rather nice , his long reticence . ”
“ Forty years ! ”
Griffin put in .
“ With this outbreak at last . ”
“ The outbreak , ” I returned , “ will make a tremendous occasion of Thursday night ; ” and everyone so agreed with me that , in the light of it , we lost all attention for everything else .
The last story , however incomplete and like the mere opening of a serial , had been told ; we handshook and “ candlestuck , ” as somebody said , and went to bed .
I knew the next day that a letter containing the key had , by the first post , gone off to his London apartments ; but in spite of -- or perhaps just on account of -- the eventual diffusion of this knowledge we quite let him alone till after dinner , till such an hour of the evening , in fact , as might best accord with the kind of emotion on which our hopes were fixed .
Then he became as communicative as we could desire and indeed gave us his best reason for being so .
We had it from him again before the fire in the hall , as we had had our mild wonders of the previous night .
It appeared that the narrative he had promised to read us really required for a proper intelligence a few words of prologue .
Let me say here distinctly , to have done with it , that this narrative , from an exact transcript of my own made much later , is what I shall presently give .
Poor Douglas , before his death -- when it was in sight -- committed to me the manuscript that reached him on the third of these days and that , on the same spot , with immense effect , he began to read to our hushed little circle on the night of the fourth .
The departing ladies who had said they would stay did n’t , of course , thank heaven , stay : they departed , in consequence of arrangements made , in a rage of curiosity , as they professed , produced by the touches with which he had already worked us up .
But that only made his little final auditory more compact and select , kept it , round the hearth , subject to a common thrill .