{"product_id":"2940014069496","title":"When I Was Dead and other stories","description":"WHEN I WAS DEAD\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"And yet my heart\u003cbr\u003eWill not confess he owes the malady\u003cbr\u003eThat doth my life besiege.\"\u003cbr\u003e--All's Well that Ends Well\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat was the worst of Ravenel Hall. The passages were long and gloomy,\u003cbr\u003ethe rooms were musty and dull, even the pictures were sombre and their\u003cbr\u003esubjects dire. On an autumn evening, when the wind soughed and ailed\u003cbr\u003ethrough the trees in the park, and the dead leaves whistled and\u003cbr\u003echattered, while the rain clamoured at the windows, small wonder that\u003cbr\u003efolks with gentle nerves went a-straying in their wits! An acute\u003cbr\u003enervous system is a grievous burthen on the deck of a yacht under\u003cbr\u003esunlit skies: at Ravenel the chain of nerves was prone to clash and\u003cbr\u003ejangle a funeral march. Nerves must be pampered in a tea-drinking\u003cbr\u003ecommunity; and the ghost that your grandfather, with a skinful of\u003cbr\u003eport, could face and never tremble, sets you, in your sobriety,\u003cbr\u003esweating and shivering; or, becoming scared (poor ghost!) of your\u003cbr\u003ebulged eyes and dropping jaw, he quenches expectation by not appearing\u003cbr\u003eat all. So I am left to conclude that it was tea which made my\u003cbr\u003eacquaintance afraid to stay at Ravenel. Even Wilvern gave over; and as\u003cbr\u003ehe is in the Guards, and a polo player his nerves ought to be strong\u003cbr\u003eenough. On the night before he went I was explaining to him my theory,\u003cbr\u003ethat if you place some drops of human blood near you, and then\u003cbr\u003econcentrate your thoughts, you will after a while see before you a man\u003cbr\u003eor a woman who will stay with you during long hours of the night, and\u003cbr\u003eeven meet you at unexpected places during the day. I was explaining\u003cbr\u003ethis theory, I repeat, when he interrupted me with words, senseless\u003cbr\u003eenough, which sent me fencing and parrying strangers,--on my guard.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I say, Alistair, my dear chap!\" he began, \"you ought to get out of\u003cbr\u003ethis place and go up to Town and knock about a bit--you really ought,\u003cbr\u003eyou know.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Yes,\" I replied, \"and get poisoned at the hotels by bad food and at\u003cbr\u003ethe clubs by bad talk, I suppose. No, thank you: and let me say that\u003cbr\u003eyour care for my health enervates me.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Well, you can do as you like,\" says he, rapping with his feet on the\u003cbr\u003efloor. \"I'm hanged if I stay here after to-morrow I'll be staring mad\u003cbr\u003eif I do!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe was my last visitor. Some weeks after his departure I was sitting\u003cbr\u003ein the library with my drops of blood by me. I had got my theory\u003cbr\u003enearly perfect by this time; but there was one difficulty. The figure\u003cbr\u003ewhich I had ever before me was the figure of an old woman with her\u003cbr\u003ehair divided in the middle, and her hair fell to her shoulders, white\u003cbr\u003eon one side and black on the other. She as a very complete old woman;\u003cbr\u003ebut, alas! she was eyeless, and when I tried to construct the eyes she\u003cbr\u003ewould shrivel and rot in my sight. But to-night I was thinking,\u003cbr\u003ethinking, as I had never thought before, and the eyes were just\u003cbr\u003ecreeping into the head when I heard terrible crash outside as if some\u003cbr\u003eheavy substance had fallen. Of a sudden the door was flung open and\u003cbr\u003etwo maid-servants entered they glanced at the rug under my chair, and\u003cbr\u003eat that they turned a sick white, cried on God, and huddled out.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"How dare you enter the library in this manner?\" I demanded sternly.\u003cbr\u003eNo answer came back from them, so I started in pursuit. I found all\u003cbr\u003ethe servants in the house gathered in a knot at the end of the\u003cbr\u003epassage.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Mrs. Pebble,\" I said smartly, to the housekeeper, \"I want those two\u003cbr\u003ewomen discharged to-morrow. It's an outrage! You ought to be more\u003cbr\u003ecareful.\" But she was not attending to me. Her face was distorted with\u003cbr\u003eterror.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070394417392,"sku":"2940014069496","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014069496_p0.jpg?v=1763599984","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014069496","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}