The Beetle | Page 4

stretching from
time unto eternity.
Having regained my feet, I had gone perhaps another couple of hundred
yards along the road--Heaven knows that it seemed to me just then a
couple of miles!--when there came over me again that overpowering
giddiness which, I take it, was born of my agony of hunger. I staggered,
helplessly, against a low wall which, just there, was at the side of the
path. Without it I should have fallen in a heap. The attack appeared to
last for hours; I suppose it was only seconds; and, when I came to
myself, it was as though I had been aroused from a swoon of
sleep,--aroused, to an extremity of pain. I exclaimed aloud,
'For a loaf of bread what wouldn't I do!'
I looked about me, in a kind of frenzy. As I did so I for the first time
became conscious that behind me was a house. It was not a large one. It
was one of those so-called villas which are springing up in multitudes
all round London, and which are let at rentals of from twenty-five to

forty pounds a year. It was detached. So far as I could see, in the
imperfect light, there was not another building within twenty or thirty
yards of either side of it. It was in two storeys. There were three
windows in the upper storey. Behind each the blinds were closely
drawn. The hall door was on my right. It was approached by a little
wooden gate.
The house itself was so close to the public road that by leaning over the
wall I could have touched either of the windows on the lower floor.
There were two of them. One of them was a bow window. The bow
window was open. The bottom centre sash was raised about six inches.
CHAPTER II
INSIDE
I realised, and, so to speak, mentally photographed all the little details
of the house in front of which I was standing with what almost
amounted to a gleam of preternatural perception. An instant before, the
world swam before my eyes. I saw nothing. Now I saw everything,
with a clearness which, as it were, was shocking.
Above all, I saw the open window. I stared at it, conscious, as I did so,
of a curious catching of the breath. It was so near to me; so very near. I
had but to stretch out my hand to thrust it through the aperture. Once
inside, my hand would at least be dry. How it rained out there! My
scanty clothing was soaked; I was wet to the skin! I was shivering. And,
each second, it seemed to rain still faster. My teeth were chattering. The
damp was liquefying the very marrow in my bones.
And, inside that open window, it was, it must be, so warm, so dry!
There was not a soul in sight. Not a human being anywhere near. I
listened; there was not a sound. I alone was at the mercy of the sodden
night. Of all God's creatures the only one unsheltered from the
fountains of Heaven which He had opened. There was not one to see
what I might do; not one to care. I need fear no spy. Perhaps the house
was empty; nay, probably. It was my plain duty to knock at the door,

rouse the inmates, and call attention to their oversight,--the open
window. The least they could do would be to reward me for my pains.
But, suppose the place was empty, what would be the use of knocking?
It would be to make a useless clatter. Possibly to disturb the
neighbourhood, for nothing. And, even if the people were at home, I
might go unrewarded. I had learned, in a hard school, the world's
ingratitude. To have caused the window to be closed--the inviting
window, the tempting window, the convenient window!--and then to be
no better for it after all, but still to be penniless, hopeless, hungry, out
in the cold and the rain--better anything than that. In such a situation,
too late, I should say to myself that mine had been the conduct of a fool.
And I should say it justly too. To be sure.
Leaning over the low wall I found that I could very easily put my hand
inside the room. How warm it was in there! I could feel the difference
of temperature in my fingertips. Very quietly I stepped right over the
wall. There was just room to stand in comfort between the window and
the wall. The ground felt to the foot as if it were cemented. Stooping
down, I peered through the opening. I could see nothing. It was black
as pitch inside. The blind was drawn right up; it seemed incredible that
anyone could