Free The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories by Michael Cox, R.A. Gilbert Page B

am alive, it was the most monstrous grey rat I ever beheld or imagined.
     
    Shakespeare says—'Some men there are cannot abide a gaping pig, and some that are mad if they behold a cat.' I went well-nigh out of my wits when I beheld this rat; for, laugh at me as you may, it fixed upon me, I thought, a perfectly human expression of malice; and, as it shuffled about and looked up into my face almost from between my feet, I saw, I could swear it—I felt it then, and know it now, the infernal gaze and the accursed countenance of my old friend in the portrait, transfused into the visage of the bloated vermin before me.
     
    I bounced into my room again with a feeling of loathing and horror I cannot describe, and locked and bolted my door as if a lion had been at the other side. D-n him or it; curse the portrait and its original! I felt in my soul that the rat—yes, the rat, the rat I had just seen, was that evil being in masquerade, and rambling through the house upon some infernal night lark.
     
    Next morning I was early trudging through the miry streets; and, among other transactions, posted a peremptory note recalling Tom. On my return, however, I found a note from my absent 'chum', announcing his intended return next day. I was doubly rejoiced at this, because I had succeeded in getting rooms; and because the change of scene and return of my comrade were rendered specially pleasant by the last night's half ridiculous half horrible adventure.
     
    I slept extemporaneously in my new quarters in Digges' Street that night, and next morning returned for breakfast to the haunted mansion, where I was certain Tom would call immediately on his arrival.
     
    I was quite right—he came; and almost his first question referred to the primary object of our change of residence.
     
    'Thank God,' he said with genuine fervour, on hearing that all was arranged. 'On your account I am delighted. As to myself, I assure you that no earthly consideration could have induced me ever again to pass a night in this disastrous old house.'
     
    'Confound the house!' I ejaculated, with a genuine mixture of fear and detestation, 'we have not had a pleasant hour since we came to live here'; and so I went on, and related incidentally my adventure with the plethoric old rat.
     
    'Well, if that were all,' said my cousin, affecting to make light of the matter, 'I don't think I should have minded it very much.'
     
    'Ay, but its eye—its countenance, my dear Tom,' urged I; 'if you had seen that, you would have felt it might be anything but what it seemed.'
     
    'I inclined to think the best conjurer in such a case would be an able-bodied cat,' he said, with a provoking chuckle.
     
    'But let us hear your own adventure,' I said tardy.
     
    At this challenge he looked uneasily round him. I had poked up a very unpleasant recollection.
     
    'You shall hear it, Dick; I'll tell it to you,' he said. 'Begad, sir, I should feel quite queer, though, telling it here, though we are too strong a body for ghosts to meddle with just now.'
     
    Though he spoke this like a joke, I think it was serious calculation. Our Hebe was in a corner of the room, packing our cracked delft tea and dinner-services in a basket. She soon suspended operations, and with mouth and eyes wide open became an absorbed listener. Tom's experiences were told nearly in these words:
     
    'I saw it three times, Dick—three distinct times; and I am perfectly certain it meant me some infernal harm. I was, I say, in danger—in extreme danger; for, if nothing else had happened, my reason would most certainly have failed me, unless I had escaped so soon. Thank God. I did escape.
     
    'The first night of this hateful disturbance, I was lying in the attitude of sleep, in that lumbering old bed. I hate to think of it. I was really wide awake, though I had put out my candle, and was lying as quietly as if I had been asleep; and although accidentally restless, my thoughts were running in a cheerful and