"Monsieur wiped the damp sweat from his head and hands, and stole out.
"For a couple of days he did not enter the room again. On the third,
telling himself that his fears were those of a hysterical girl, he opened
the door and went in. To shame himself, he took his lamp in his hand,
and crossing over to the far corner where the skeleton stood, examined
it. A set of bones bought for three hundred francs. Was he a child, to
be scared by such a bogey!
"He held his lamp up in front of the thing's grinning head. The flame of
the lamp flickered as though a faint breath had passed over it.
"The man explained this to himself by saying that the walls of the house
were old and cracked, and that the wind might creep in anywhere. He
repeated this explanation to himself as he recrossed the room, walking
backwards, with his eyes fixed on the thing. When he reached his desk,
he sat down and gripped the arms of his chair till his fingers turned
white.
"He tried to work, but the empty sockets in that grinning head seemed to
be drawing him towards them. He rose and battled with his inclination to
fly screaming from the room. Glancing fearfully about him, his eye fell
upon a high screen, standing before the door. He dragged it forward, and
placed it between himself and the thing, so that he could not see it--nor
it see him.
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