LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1378, 16 July 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

IN THE DESK AT DUSSFLDOBF. A Strange Experience. (London Society ) I took the rooms without much consideration, for I had gone to Dusseldorf upon a miserable errand ; nono other indeed than to consult a famous oculist there He wanted to watch over me for at least a month, and preferred that I should have the quiet of an apa-tment in a private house rather than be subject to the noise aod bustle of an hotel He knew the v. ry rooms for me —they belonged to an artist friend of his, an ar.ima l painter, who was away on a holiday, and who would be glad to‘get a tenant for the time being. They consisted of a large studio and dormitory attached, with a cupboardlike ant room that gave by an outer door upon the main stair, whilst both painting room and bedroom opened by separate doors into this tiny vestibule. Only after I had been settled in them for some hours had I the sp-nt even to regard the contents of my new abode. I was to use ray damaged «ight as little as possible, and I was to admit no more light into thereo ns than was necessary fo' me to s eer a out by. Thus from she r ennui r-thor than curiosity was it that T beg n to look about me, and to discover that 1 was in a luxurious habitation, fitted and furnished in the best possible taste. There were soft couches, thick curtains, rich tapestry, double piled rugs, antique mirrors, cabinets, bookshelves, tables, chairs, lamps, whatnot, but save for an easel or two stowe I aw -y in a further corner, little or nothing to indicate the presence of the professional artist. Some pictures there were about, but wdh one exception they were bung upon the walls as part of their d- coration. This exception however was notable, and was standing tin framed on a chair, where, had I dared to have withdrawn the blind, the rays from tbe high studio window would have fallen full upon it. Placed there in the obscure light, towards six o’clock in the au f umn evening, this picture looked to me like the representation of a cnuching animal; a panther, leopard, cheetah, one could not say. I could not see clearly, and it did not interest me ; T merely saw it as 1 saw all else, automatically, dimly. My mind was t u> full of the gravity of mv condition, of my prospects, my future ; I was very lonely too, the more so because my man, who would otherwise have been reading to me, bad been taken ill io the afternoon. and had been obliged to go to bed, his room being at the t"p of the bouse And the house ? Well, though let off in flats, according to the custom of the cauntry, it wa” as silent and as gl omy as if it had hern in the city of tbe dead, and beyond at long Intervals a foot going up and down the stair, not a sound was to be heard. At best there is lictle traffic in the thoroughfares of Dusseldorf, and this establishment was in a side street. Thus then, I sat in the darkest corner of the room, with nothing but my own gloomy thoughts frr company. Gloomier and gloomier they grew as I dwelt upon them, until indeed I worked myself into a nervous fever, a fever of apprehension. Presently I was startled by a gentle knock at the door, one sing’e gentle knock, fnvoluntaril 1 cried, ‘Come in’; but no one appeared, and f r the matter of that I had noticed no footstep. So I thought I had bt-en mi-taken and that the knock had been only one of those mvsterious noises beard in rooms, and not ut all tinms easily to be accounted fo-. But five minutes afterwards it was repeated exactly as bef -re—one si -glo gentle knock, th re was no mistake this time. It was not as of a knuckle against the wood but as of a real metal knocker. It was plainly, undeniably a knock at the studio door, which opened into the aforesaid little anteroom Again I cied out * Come in,’ though again I had heard no footstep. Yet there was no response : and then remembering that 1 was abroad, and that my words might not be understood I uttered their equivalent in German, though knowing little enough of the language. Still no result; so I waited and listened now, and in about five minutes one* more there came the knock, precisely like the last Then I r< se hurriedly, anxi usly and went to the door, opened it, and looked out. There was no one ; faint as the light was, and growing fainter now every minute, I was sure of that. 1 stepped sc t oss to the door opening upon the main stair. It was slightly aj'r. As I did so I was seiz' d by a curious cold sort of sensa tion. a sensation of goose-flesh all over me, as it is called. Opening wide this outer door, I still found no one upon the landing —not a creature was about, up or down the stair : all was silent as the grave. Considerably puzzled and nervous, af er a minute I returned to my seat in the studio, shutting tbe doors behind me. I had scarcely been seated an instant before that s range chilly feeling crept through me again, amounting now to a shudder, that would have get my teeth chattering had I not controlled it. With it there came too a vague sense of dread, and a shrinking as it were within myself, quite indescribable. What could it mean. The weather was rather su'try and close than otherwise, and I bad h tberto felt heated ; now I c uld have borne a fire. Nay. I would have lighted one had there been any preparations for winter yet, in the elaborately ornamented china stove close to my elbow As it was, I sat shivering at intervals as if I had an ague coming on and feeling more miserable, ill, and depress'd than ever. Yes. I sat I sup pose for half an hour, strangely disinclined to move, but listening eagerly, and wondering if I should hear the knock again ; but it never came, the silence was unbroken. Very little light now remained in the apartment, and my gaze from my corner fell upon the picture on the chair ; it was about the only object discernible, the rayot the twilight lingering longer of course just beneath th ' high window. Still merely regarding this object mechanically, 1 can hardly say what it was that first seemed to make me b ok at it with anj'thing like an attentive interest, that fust made me feel that I was looking at it with my brain as well as my eyes. I imagine it must have been a certain sense of surprise at seeing it so plainly, all el e bei g very ob cure. At any rate I could now make out the form and outline of tbe animal in strong c intrant to the even half-toned background of the canvas, and in a way that I did not think I had been able to do beforeYes, there was the crouching creature, what ever it was, dark and mysterious, though with a kind of irridesceat light about it that made it palpable, plain, even to my imperfect vision A leopard or cheetah surely, painted with immense force and life like vigour and represented as if in that writhing crouching attitude which immediately precedes the spring upon the prey. A subdu'd flashing fi r e was almost visible in the a"imal’s eyes, the long curved tail seemed upon tbe point of lashing itself with the lithe rage of the wild beast I grew quite excited as 1 discerned these details, these striking evidences of the arti»t’s skid. Boaily the creature seemed almost alive, aim at moving S ■ true to nature was it that, as the fact pres ed me, the chill and dread under which I had before been laboring were immensely inercas d, and nervous and miserable as I was, there started c fid drop” upon my brow Shrinking more and more within myself, my teeth chattering, and with a horrible sense of stilling, I was ab >ut to rise in sheer dismay, when I was brought tn my feet, aghast and in actual tenor, by plainly seeing t'-e animal move, Tes, undoubtedly, for a moment distinctly, there was a writhing motion, and then, with one angry sweep of the tail the creature snomed t< spring for ward into the blackness of the mom, and there remained nothing unon the chair ap patently but tie pale, plain, even-tinted t me of the canva- ! I rushed to the door panic stricken, s is iz”d my hat from the table in the anteroom, fled down the stairs, and cut of the h< us«. The pleasant evening air revived me ; I began to collect mys* lf a little, and to quea <ion whether I had not l -een a great fool—a nervous, highly wr -ught, unreasoning foot. Was I not like a frightened child, dreading to ba alone in the dusk, and who in its panic

endows with life the shadow of some simple object, and thinks i‘. has seen a bogie? No, I refused to accept this as the explanation Out of condition as I was, I was not quite an imbecile; my wits had not all deserted me, and nothing, upon further consideration, would ever persuade me that I had been the prey of a mere hallucination. Thai there had been an unaccountable knock at my door I Wnud swear with my last breath and that col l shivering which had supervened was no fancy. It was gone now ; 1 was per. f- ct y calm, and save for my one great anxiety—my sigut untroubled. Turning and looking up at the house as it stood, fo'inal and gloomy in the twilight, for an instant I thought of re entering, but I rec died from the idea as soon as formed. No, 1 could net go back alone; week, idiotic, contemptible as my conduct might seem, I shrank from the thought of entering those dusky rooms without a companion. I was forbidden to go out of doors in twilight or at night, and I determined to walk round to my doctor, and as ho knew the ro oms to confide in him, and ask him as a favor to go back with me for a while. Unluckily, as I then thought, he was from home had gone into tha country, and would no return until the fo lowing morning. Clearly I could ■ot expose my weakness, if such it was, to auy one else I kn w nooue else in the place and not speakiog Q-erman could not attempt an explanation, ev» n had I been willing, wi'h the porter or with the wait.r from the hotel, whence I had arranged my mea a were to be sent There was nothing for it then but to go back alone, un ess I chose to rouse my servant, and r< a ly ( hat weiid be too foolish ; no, I must face it by myself. So, plucking up courage, I wrnt straight back, re-entered the rooms, the doors of which I form 4 just as I had left them, slightly ajar ; lighted a caudle, walked boldly up to the picture on the chair, and examined it. There was the animal, a spotted beast, panther, cheetah, whatever it was, exactly as my first casual look as it had suggested; a large and vigorous sketch in oil, evidently from a master’s hand While I was looking at it the waiter brought my supper. He spoke some English, but I disdained referring to what had happened ; and, without any return of the shivering sensation. I soon after went to bed and slept-slept till my servant, now seemingly all right again, brought me my coffee and roll in the morning. (To he continued )