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“ I should have felt jealous of any participant in the occult sensations I had experienced. The influence, vibration, or whatever it may be termed, which had met me in the rooms, and had been so singularly accredited by the fulfilment of my various little surmises—especially in the really remarkable case of the initials—had been poignantly inviting and, so to say, caressing! It was personal, sweetly familiar, and above all, distinctly sexual or feminine!
It is upon me now more powerfully than never! ”

“ The old lady excused herself from going up-stairs with us to the vacant apartment: "I'm a good bit heavier than what I was forty years ago, and goin' up-stairs catches me in the back!" Rosy, rotund and wrinkled she is, in white cap and apron and black dress—sacred to the memory of a spouse who died "back in the eighties!" So Joan and I went up the dark little carpeted staircase and entered the room by a door on the left of the landing. ”

“ Joan admitted this reluctantly. "But what of that?" she added. "You were not here when you were eight or nine years old, or any other time, and there are plenty of people whose initials are L. H. Besides, who is E. A. A.?"
"I've been trying to think. It seems just on the tip of my tongue, but it won't come off. But I know she was a woman—she is, maybe!—for when was all this?"
"The letters have been there for ages. They've been painted over scores of times; and that tree must be at least a hundred years old. My dear, it's nothing but a string of coincidences—lucky guesses! ”

“ But I said that a string of guesses or coincidences was no just cause for uneasiness. "I feel a peculiarly agreeable influence here: I've made up my mind to lease the apartment for a year, and in order to settle the matter, I shall pay Mrs. Blodgett in advance! Now I'll go back to the hotel and have my things sent over here. I can't thank you enough for guiding me here! Remember, you've invited me to dine with you to-morrow. From what I'm told, a dinner isn't too easy to get in London nowadays!"
Joan sighed. "Nor breakfast nor lunch, either! ”

“ No doubt an alienist would call me insane: but I know better!
When I went into her bedroom—our bedroom!—there was an effluence there, a fragrance, not of flowers or of commercial scents, but of her—that gave my nerves a delicious shock of anticipation and joy. It was exquisitely individual: and when I struck a match to light the bedroom candle (these ancient conveniences survive in Mrs. Blodgett's establishment) , I was near believing that its light would show her face on the pillow of the bed! ”

“ Another thing bearing on the present situation is the fact that I have never known or been attracted by women, with the exception, of course, of my mother and sister. This doesn't mean that I am insensible to woman—the ewig weibliche—in the abstract. I'm a man, and don't consider myself a sexual freak! ”

“ It is not a hallucination. Hallucinations deceive the physical senses; but what she communicates to me penetrates to a depth in me far beyond the sphere of sense.
I wish I knew her name! "E. A. A." must be her initials, but what do they stand for? "Exquisite Adorable Angel," perhaps!
It's late—time I was asleep. By the way, I had a message from Joan this after-noon saying that poor Philip's horse had been shot under him, and that he was in a base hospital with a broken leg. ”

“ But," I continued, pointing to the door beside the portrait, "the kitchen is in there, with the sink on the right, where I've often helped the girl wash up the dishes"—I opened the door and we looked in and confirmed my assertion—"but this is the door of the bedroom, with which I am better acquainted." I laid a hand on the door-knob.
"Don't, John!" entreated Joan. "If you do, I'm going to pray that you'll be disappointed!"
"It's too late! Here's what we shall see: On the left there'll be a window, and beside it a dressing-table built into the wall—quite an unusual construction. ”