Wilfrid Cumbermede | Page 9

from that moment. An air as it
were of the tomb mingled henceforth with the homely delights of my

life. Grannie wanted to die, and uncle would not let her. She longed for
her grave, and they would keep her above-ground. And from the feeling
that grannie ought to be buried, grew an awful sense that she was not
alive--not alive, that is, as other people are alive, and a gulf was fixed
between her and me which for a long time I never attempted to pass,
avoiding as much as I could all communication with her, even when
my uncle or aunt wished to take me to her room. They did not seem
displeased, however, when I objected, and not always insisted on
obedience. Thus affairs went on in our quiet household for what
seemed to me a very long time.
CHAPTER IV.
THE PENDULUM.
It may have been a year after this, it may have been two, I cannot tell,
when the next great event in my life occurred. I think it was towards the
close of an Autumn, but there was not so much about our house as
elsewhere to mark the changes of the seasons, for the grass was always
green. I remember it was a sultry afternoon. I had been out almost the
whole day, wandering hither and thither over the grass, and I felt hot
and oppressed. Not an air was stirring. I longed for a breath of wind, for
I was not afraid of the wind itself, only of the trees that made it. Indeed,
I delighted in the wind, and would run against it with exuberant
pleasure, even rejoicing in the fancy that I, as well as the trees, could
make the wind by shaking my hair about as I ran. I must run, however;
whereas the trees, whose prime business it was, could do it without
stirring from the spot. But this was much too hot an afternoon for me,
whose mood was always more inclined to the passive than the active, to
run about and toss my hair, even for the sake of the breeze that would
result therefrom. I bethought myself. I was nearly a man now; I would
be afraid of things no more; I would get out my pendulum, and see
whether that would not help me. Not this time would I flinch from what
consequences might follow. Let them be what they might, the
pendulum should wag, and have a fair chance of doing its best.
[Illustration: "I SAT AND WATCHED IT WITH GROWING AWE."]

I went up to my room, a sense of high emprise filling my little heart.
Composedly, yea solemnly, I set to work, even as some enchanter of
old might have drawn his circle, and chosen his spell out of his
iron-clasped volume. I strode to the closet in which the awful
instrument dwelt. It stood in the furthest corner. As I lifted it,
something like a groan invaded my ear. My notions of locality were not
then sufficiently developed to let me know that grannie's room was on
the other side of that closet. I almost let the creature, for as such I
regarded it, drop. I was not to be deterred, however. I bore it carefully
to the light, and set it gently on the window sill, full in view of the
distant trees towards the west. I left it then for a moment, as if that it
might gather its strength for its unwonted labours, while I closed the
door, and, with what fancy I can scarcely imagine now, the curtains of
my bed as well. Possibly it was with some notion of having one place
to which, if the worst came to the worst, I might retreat for safety.
Again I approached the window, and after standing for some time in
contemplation of the pendulum, I set it in motion, and stood watching
it.
It swung slower and slower. It wanted to stop. It should not stop. I gave
it another swing. On it went, at first somewhat distractedly, next more
regularly, then with slowly retarding movement. But it should not stop.
I turned in haste and got from the side of my bed the only chair in the
room, placed it in the window, sat down before the reluctant instrument,
and gave it a third swing. Then, my elbows on the sill, I sat and
watched it with growing awe, but growing determination as well. Once
more it showed signs of refusal; once more the forefinger of my right
hand administered impulse.
Something gave a crack inside the creature: away went the pendulum,
swinging with a will. I sat and gazed, almost horror-stricken. Ere many
moments had passed, the feeling of terror had risen to such a height that,