Edgar Jepson

“ And Woodfell has cultivated the power to an extraordinary degree."
"Ah, but you should have heard his voice—the uncertainty in it—when he began his exorcism," I said.
"Yes; there is that," he said thoughtfully. "But Woodfell wanted to frighten you away; and he may be a better actor than we dream."
"That I don't believe," I said, thinking of his outspoken rages.
"I don't say that he is. I am putting forward the explanation that the Abyss is within us," said Marks.
"The beast in the garden is but one thing," I said. "What about this growing, threatening horror?" ”

“ He had been in the very midst of it all. He had seen whatever had happened. And I could trust his sceptical judgment to give me the truth of the matter as far as the human mind could. But I doubted that he would give me his opinion; and I thought that if I invited him to spend the evening with me, he might come on his guard, with sealed lips. I might get it from him by a careless question.
This summer I had been to very few meetings of the New Bohemians. I had preferred to spend the evenings with Pamela. It seemed to me that I was most likely to find him off his guard there. ”

“ It feels as if the horror were already there," she said slowly, with knitted brow. "Besides, I felt it first yesterday morning; and if the beast had been coming, it would have come and gone by now."
"That's probable. But I tell you what: the garden hasn't yet recovered from the rites," I said in a cheering tone.
"It isn't that," she said. "It's grown worse since yesterday."
It continued to grow worse; and even more disquieting, the oppression and the sense of horror began to spread. It invaded No. 19. Pamela said that the house was growing horrible ”