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" I have experienced the revulsion which comes sooner or later to the adventurous soul who experiences nothing but defeat and so-called ill luck. I have swung to the opposite extreme. I have lost in everything — I have lost in love, I have lost in money, I have lost in the struggle for preferment"
Is there such a thing is being "unlucky," or is it rather the result of our own actions/ inactions? In this short story by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (author of Luella Miller, episode 1), readers meet two different souls both grappling with this very question. Rae Wilson shares her observations on Freeman's words and invites you to question your own history with lady luck.
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Monster Heat - by David Fesliyan
★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★In the oral tradition of storytelling, Echoes in the Dark, delivers classic works of gothic fiction weekly. Hosted and curated by Ms. Rae (an award-winning educator, actor, and literary analyst) the collection of stories spans popular works by authors like Edgar Allan Poe as well as lesser known works by authors such as Guy de Maupassant. Each story is followed by a literary analysis.
If you’re looking to enjoy more classic literature, struggle to find the time to read, hate reading, or just love listening to stories, then this podcast is for you.
A Note on Content: While these stories are generally appropriate for listeners aged 12 and up, classic Gothic literature frequently explores themes of murder, romantic affairs, and "tortured souls." Stories are performed exactly as written in their original historical context.
If you are looking to learn more ways to boost your literary analysis visit:
Speaker: Welcome to Echoes in the
Dark, a podcast dedicated to the
oral
Speaker: tradition of storytelling.
Speaker: If you're looking to enjoy
more classic literature, struggle to
Speaker: find the time to read, hate
reading, or just love listening to
Speaker: stories, then this podcast
is for you.
Speaker: At the end of each story,
I'll share my analysis on the
story's
Speaker: deeper meanings.
Speaker: The Hall Bedroom by Mary E.
Speaker: Wilkins Freeman is a short
story that was originally published
Speaker: in 1903 in Collier's Weekly
Magazine.
Speaker: Wilkins Freeman had some
250 short stories published.
Speaker: The entire story is told in
first person narration.
Speaker: If you want to follow
along, you can get a copy on my
website,
Speaker: better essaywriting.com.
Speaker: The Hall Bedroom by Mary E.
Speaker: Wilkins Freeman.
Speaker: My name is Mrs.
Speaker: Elizabeth Jennings.
Speaker: I am a highly respectable
woman.
Speaker: I may style myself a
gentlewoman.
Speaker: For in my youth I enjoyed
advantages.
Speaker: I was well brought up and I
graduated at a young ladies'
seminary.
Speaker: I also married well.
Speaker: My husband was the most
gentle of all merchants and
apothecary.
Speaker: His shop was on the corner
of the main street in Rockton, the
Speaker: town where I was born, and
where I lived until the death of my
Speaker: husband.
Speaker: My parents had died when I
had been married a short time, so I
Speaker: was left quite alone in the
world.
Speaker: I was not competent to
carry on the apothecary business by
myself,
Speaker: for I had no knowledge of
drugs, and had a mortal terror of
giving
Speaker: poisons instead of
medicines.
Speaker: Therefore, I was obliged to
sell at a considerable sacrifice,
Speaker: and the proceeds, some five
thousand dollars, were all I had in
Speaker: the world.
Speaker: The income was not enough
to support me in any kind of
comfort,
Speaker: and I saw that I must in
some way earn money.
Speaker: I thought at first of
teaching, but I was no longer young
and
Speaker: methods had changed since
my school days.
Speaker: What I was able to teach,
nobody wished to know.
Speaker: I could think of only one
thing to do, take borders.
Speaker: By the same objection to
that business as to teaching held
good
Speaker: in Rocktown.
Speaker: Nobody wished to board.
Speaker: My husband had rented a
house with a number of bedrooms, and
I
Speaker: advertised, but nobody
applied.
Speaker: Finally, with my cash
running very low, and I became as
desperate.
Speaker: I packed up my furniture,
rented a large house in this town in
Speaker: Lutyr.
Speaker: It was a venture intended
with many risks.
Speaker: In the first place, the
rent was exorbitant.
Speaker: In the next I was entirely
unknown.
Speaker: However, I am a person of
considerable ingenuity and have
inventive
Speaker: power and much enterprise
when the occasion presses.
Speaker: I advertised in a very
original manner.
Speaker: Although that actually took
my last penny, that is the last
penny
Speaker: of my ready money.
Speaker: And I was forced to draw on
my principal to purchase my first
Speaker:supplies.
Speaker: A thing which I had
resolved never on any account to do.
Speaker: But the great risk met with
a reward, for I had several
applicants
Speaker: within two days after my
advertisement appeared in the paper.
Speaker: Within two weeks, my
boarding house was well established.
Speaker: I became very successful,
and my success would have been
uninterrupted
Speaker: had it not been for the
mysterious and bewildering
occurrences
Speaker: which I'm about to relate.
Speaker: I am now forced to leave
the house and rent another.
Speaker: Some of my old boarders
accompany me, some with the most
unreasonable
Speaker: nervousness refuse to be
longer associated in any way,
however
Speaker: indirectly, with the
terrible and uncanny happenings
which I have
Speaker: to relate.
Speaker: It remains to be seen
whether my ill luck in this house
will follow
Speaker: me into another, and
whether my whole prosperity in life
will
Speaker: be forever shadowed by the
mystery of the Hall Bedroom.
Speaker: Instead of telling the
strange story myself in my own
words, I
Speaker: shall present the journal
of mister George H.
Speaker: Whitcroft.
Speaker: I shall show you the
portions beginning on january
eighteenth
Speaker: of the present year, the
date when he took up his residence
with
Speaker: me.
Speaker: Here it is january
eighteenth, eighteen eighty three.
Speaker: Here I am, established in
my new boarding house.
Speaker: I have, as befits my humble
means, the hall bedroom.
Speaker: Even the hall bedroom on
the third floor.
Speaker: I have heard all my life of
hall bedrooms.
Speaker: I have seen hall bedrooms,
I have been in them, but never until
Speaker: now when I am actually
established in one, did I comprehend
what
Speaker: at once an ignominious and
sternly uncompromising thing a hall
Speaker: bedroom is.
Speaker: It proves the ignominy of
the dweller therein.
Speaker: No man at thirty six, my
age, would be domiciled in a hall
bedroom
Speaker: unless he were himself
ignominious at least comparatively
speaking.
Speaker: I am proved by this means
incontrovertibly to have been left
far
Speaker: behind in the race.
Speaker: I see no reason why I
should not live in this hall bedroom
for
Speaker: the rest of my life.
Speaker: That is, if I have enough
money to pay the landlady, and that
Speaker: seems probable since my
small funds are invested as safely
as
Speaker: if I were an orphan ward in
charge of a pillar of a sanctuary.
Speaker: After the valuables have
been stolen, I have most carefully
locked
Speaker: the stable door.
Speaker: I have experienced the
revulsions which comes sooner or
later
Speaker: to the adventurous soul who
experiences nothing but defeat and
Speaker: so-called ill luck.
Speaker: I have swung to the
opposite extreme.
Speaker: I have lost in everything.
Speaker: I have lost in love, I have
lost in money, I have lost in the
Speaker: struggle for preferment.
Speaker: I have lost in health and
strength, for mine is not a
necessarily
Speaker: fatal malady until
Providence shall take me out of my
hall bedroom.
Speaker: There is no one place more
than another where I can live.
Speaker: There is not sufficient
motive to take me away, even if the
mineral
Speaker: waters do not befit me.
Speaker: So I'm here and to stay in
the hall bedroom.
Speaker: The landlady is civil and
even kind, as kind as a woman who
has
Speaker: to keep her poor womanly
eye upon the main chance can be.
Speaker: The struggle for money
always injures the fine grain of a
woman.
Speaker: She is too fine a thing to
do it.
Speaker: She does not by nature
belong with the gold grubbers, and
it therefore
Speaker: lowers her.
Speaker: She steps from heights to
claw and scrape and dig, but she
cannot
Speaker: help it, oftentimes, poor
thing, and her deterioration thereby
Speaker: is to be condoned.
Speaker: The landlady is all she can
be taking her strain of adverse
circumstances
Speaker: into consideration, and the
table is good, even conscientiously
Speaker: so.
Speaker: It looks to me as if she
were foolish enough to strive to
give
Speaker: the boarders their money's
worth, with the due regard for the
Speaker: main chance which is
inevitable.
Speaker: However, that is of minor
importance to me since my diet is
restricted.
Speaker: It is curious what an
annoyance a restriction in diet can
be even
Speaker: to a man who has considered
himself somewhat indifferent to
gastronomic
Speaker: delights.
Speaker: There was today a pudding
for dinner, which I could not taste
Speaker: without penalty, but which
I longed for.
Speaker: It was only because it
looked unlike any other pudding that
I
Speaker: had ever seen, and assumed
a mental and spiritual significance.
Speaker: It seemed to me,
whimsically, no doubt, as if tasting
it might
Speaker: give me a new sensation and
consequently a new outlook.
Speaker: Trivial things may lead to
large results.
Speaker: Why should I not get a new
outlook by means of a pudding?
Speaker: Life here stretches before
me most monstrously, and I feel like
Speaker: clutching aught
alleviations, though paradoxically
since I have
Speaker: settled down with the
utmost acquiescence.
Speaker: Still, one cannot
immediately overcome and change
radically all
Speaker: one's nature.
Speaker: And I look at myself
critically and search for the
keynote to
Speaker: my whole self and my
actions.
Speaker: I have always been
conscious of a reaching out, an
overweening
Speaker: desire for the new, the
untired, for the broadness of
further
Speaker: horizons, seas beyond seas,
the thoughts beyond thought.
Speaker: This characteristic has
been the primary cause of all my
misfortunes.
Speaker: I have the soul of an
explorer, and in nine out of ten
cases,
Speaker: this leads to destruction.
Speaker: If I had possessed capital
and sufficient push, I should have
Speaker: been one of the searchers
after the North Pole.
Speaker: I have been an eager
student of astronomy.
Speaker: I have studied botany with
avidity, and have dreamed of new
flora
Speaker: in unexplored parts of the
world.
Speaker: And the same with animal
life and geology.
Speaker: I longed for riches in
order to discover the power and
sense of
Speaker: possession of the rich.
Speaker: I longed for love in order
to discover the possibilities of the
Speaker: emotions.
Speaker: I longed for all that the
mind of man could conceive as
desirable
Speaker: of man, not so much for
purely selfish ends as from an
insatiable
Speaker: thirst for knowledge of a
universal trend.
Speaker: But I have limitations.
Speaker: I do not quite understand
of what nature for what mortal ever
Speaker: did quite understand his
own limitations, since a knowledge
of
Speaker: them would preclude their
existence.
Speaker: But they have prevented my
progress to any extent.
Speaker: Therefore, behold me in my
hall bedroom, settled at last into
Speaker: a groove of fate so deep
that I have lost the sight of even
my
Speaker: horizons.
Speaker: Just at present, as I write
here, my horizon on the left, that
Speaker: is my physical horizon, is
a wall covered with cheap paper.
Speaker: The paper is an
indeterminate pattern in white and
gilt.
Speaker: There are a few photographs
of my own hungabouts, and on the
large
Speaker: wall space beside the beds
there is a large oil painting which
Speaker: belongs to my landlady.
Speaker: It has a massive tarnished
gold frame, and curiously enough,
the
Speaker: painting itself is rather
good.
Speaker: I have no idea who the
artist could have been.
Speaker: It is of the conventional
landscape type in vogue some fifty
years
Speaker: since, the type so fondly
reproduced in chromos, the winding
river
Speaker: with the little boat
occupied by a pair of lovers.
Speaker: The cottage nestled among
trees on the right shore, the gentle
Speaker: slope of the hills and the
church spire in the background.
Speaker: But still it is well done.
Speaker: It gives me the impression
of an artist without the slightest
Speaker: originality of design, but
much of technique.
Speaker: But for some inexplicable
reason, the picture frets me.
Speaker: I find myself gazing at it
when I do not wish to do so.
Speaker: It seems to compel my
attention like some intent face in
the room.
Speaker: I shall ask Mrs.
Speaker: Jennings to have it remove.
Speaker: I will hang in its place
some photographs which I have in a
trunk.
Speaker: January twenty sixth.
Speaker: I do not write regularly in
my journal, I never did.
Speaker: I see no reason why I
should.
Speaker: I see no reason why anyone
should have the slightest sense of
Speaker: duty in such a matter.
Speaker: Some days I have nothing
which interests me sufficiently to
write
Speaker: out.
Speaker: Some days I feel either too
ill or too indolent.
Speaker: For four days I have not
written from a mixture of all three
reasons.
Speaker: Now, today I both feel like
it and I have something to write
about.
Speaker: Also, I am distinctly
better than I have been.
Speaker: Perhaps the waters are
benefiting me, or the change of air.
Speaker: Or possibly it is something
else more subtle.
Speaker: Possibly my mind has seized
upon something new, a discovery
which
Speaker: causes it to react upon my
failing body and serves as a
stimulant.
Speaker: All I know is I feel
distinctly better and am conscious
of an
Speaker: acute interest in doing so,
which is of late strange to me.
Speaker: I have been rather
indifferent and sometimes have
wondered if
Speaker: that were not the cause
rather than the result of my state
of
Speaker:health.
Speaker: I have been so continually
balked that I have settled into a
state
Speaker: of inertia.
Speaker: I lean rather comfortably
against my obstacles.
Speaker: After all, the worse of the
pain always lies in the struggle.
Speaker: I give up and it is rather
pleasant than otherwise.
Speaker: If one did not kick, the
pricks would not in the least
matter.
Speaker: However, for some reason,
for the last few days I seem to have
Speaker: awakened from my state of
quiescence.
Speaker: It means future trouble for
me, no doubt, but in the meantime,
Speaker: I am not sorry.
Speaker: It began with the picture,
the large oil painting.
Speaker: I went to misses Jennings
about it yesterday, and she, to my
surprise,
Speaker: for I thought it a matter
that could be easily arranged,
objected
Speaker: to having it removed.
Speaker: Her reasons were two, both
simple, both sufficient, especially
Speaker: since I, after all, had no
very strong desire either way.
Speaker: It seems that the picture
does not belong to her.
Speaker: It hung here when she
rented the house.
Speaker: She says if it is removed,
a very large and unsightly
discoloration
Speaker: of the wallpaper will be
exposed, and she does not like to
ask
Speaker: for new paper.
Speaker: The owner, an old man, is
traveling abroad, the agent is curt,
Speaker: and she has only been in
the house a very short time.
Speaker: Then it would mean a sad
upheaval of my room which would
disturb
Speaker: me.
Speaker: She also says that there is
no place in the house where she can
Speaker: store the pitcher, and
there is not a vacant spot in
another room
Speaker: for one so large.
Speaker: So I let the pitcher
remain.
Speaker: It really, when I came to
think of it, was very immaterial
after
Speaker: all.
Speaker: But I got my photographs
out of my trunk and I hung them
around
Speaker: the large pitcher.
Speaker: The wall is almost
completely covered.
Speaker: I hung them yesterday
afternoon and last night.
Speaker: I repeated a strange
experience which I have had in some
degree
Speaker: every night since I have
been here, but was not sure whether
it
Speaker: deserved the name of
experience.
Speaker: But was not rather one of
those dreams in which one dreams
when
Speaker: is awake.
Speaker: But last night it came
again and now I know.
Speaker: There is something very
singular about this room.
Speaker: I'm very much interested.
Speaker: I will write down for
future reference the events of last
night,
Speaker: concerning those of the
preceding nights since I have slept
in
Speaker: this room.
Speaker: I will simply say that they
have been of a similar nature, but
Speaker: as it were, only the
preliminary stages, the prologue to
what
Speaker: happened last night.
Speaker: I am not depending upon the
mineral waters here as the one
remedy
Speaker: for my malady, which is
sometimes of an acute nature and
indeed
Speaker: constantly threatens me
with the considerable suffering
unless
Speaker: by medicine I can keep it
in check.
Speaker: I will say that the
medicine which I employ is not of
the class
Speaker: commonly known as drugs.
Speaker: It is impossible that it
can be held responsible for what I
am
Speaker: about to transcribe.
Speaker: My mind last night and
every night since I have slept in
this
Speaker: room was in an absolutely
normal state.
Speaker: I take this medicine
prescribed by the specialist in
whose charge
Speaker: I was before come in here
regularly every four hours while
awake.
Speaker: As I am never a good
sleeper, it follows that I am
enabled with
Speaker: no inconvenience to take
any medicine during the night with
the
Speaker: same regularity as during
the day.
Speaker: It is my habit, therefore,
to place my bottle and spoon where
Speaker: I can put my hand upon them
easily without lighting the gas.
Speaker: Since I have been in this
room, I have placed the bottle of
medicine
Speaker: upon my dresser at the side
of the room opposite the bed.
Speaker: I have done this rather
than place it nearer as once I
jostled
Speaker: the bottle and spilled most
of the contents, and it is not easy
Speaker: for me to replace it as it
is expensive.
Speaker: Therefore, I placed it in
security on the dresser, and indeed,
Speaker: that is but three or four
steps from my bed, the room being so
Speaker: small.
Speaker: Last night I wakened as
usual, and I knew since I had fallen
asleep
Speaker: about eleven, that it must
be in the neighborhood of three.
Speaker: I wake with almost clock
like regularity, and it is never
necessary
Speaker: for me to consult my watch.
Speaker: I had slept unusually well
and without dreams, and I awoke
fully
Speaker: at once, with a feeling of
refreshment to which I am not
accustomed.
Speaker: I immediately got out of
bed and began stepping across the
room
Speaker: in the direction of my
dresser on which I had set my
medicine
Speaker: bottle and spoon.
Speaker: To my utter amazement, the
steps which had hitherto sufficed to
Speaker: take me across my room did
not suffice to do so.
Speaker: I advanced several paces,
and my outstretched hands touched
nothing.
Speaker: I stopped and went on
again.
Speaker: I was sure that I was
moving in a straight direction, even
if
Speaker: I had not been, I knew it
was impossible to advance in any
direction
Speaker: in my tiny apartment
without coming into collision either
with
Speaker: a wall or a piece of
furniture.
Speaker: I continued to walk
falteringly, as I have seen people
on the
Speaker: stage, a step, then a long
falter, then a sliding step.
Speaker: I kept my hands extended.
Speaker: They touched nothing.
Speaker: I stopped again.
Speaker: I had not the least
sentiment of fear or consternation.
Speaker: It was rather the very
stupefaction of surprise.
Speaker: How is this?
Speaker: Seems thundering in my
ears.
Speaker: What is this?
Speaker: The room was perfectly
dark.
Speaker: There was nowhere any
glimmer, as is usually the case,
even in
Speaker: a so-called dark room.
Speaker: From the walls, picture
frames, looking glass, or white
objects
Speaker: and it was absolutely
gloom.
Speaker: The house stood in a quiet
part of town.
Speaker: There were many trees
about, the electric street lights
were extinguished
Speaker: at midnight.
Speaker: There was no moon and the
sky was cloudy.
Speaker: I could not distinguish my
one window, which I thought strange,
Speaker: even on such a dark night.
Speaker: Finally, I changed my plan
of motion and turned, as nearly as
Speaker: I could estimate, at right
angles.
Speaker: Now I thought, I must reach
soon if I kept on my writing table
Speaker: underneath the window, or
if I'm going in the opposite
direction,
Speaker: the hall door.
Speaker: I reach neither.
Speaker: I am telling the
unvarnished truth when I say that I
began to
Speaker: count my steps and
carefully measure my paces after
that, and
Speaker: I traversed a space, clear
furniture, at least twenty feet by
Speaker:thirty.
Speaker: A very large apartment.
Speaker: And as I walked, I was
conscious that my naked feet were
pressing
Speaker: something which gave rise
to sensations the like of which I
have
Speaker: never experienced before.
Speaker: As nearly as I can express
it, it was as if my feet pressed
something
Speaker: as elastic as air or water,
which was, in this case, unyielding
Speaker: to my weight.
Speaker: It gave me a curious
sensation of buoyancy and
stimulation.
Speaker: At the same time, this
surface, at a surface, Be the right
name,
Speaker: which I trod, felt cool to
my feet with the coolness of vapor
Speaker: or fluidity seeming to
overlap the soles.
Speaker: Finally, I stood still.
Speaker: My surprise was at least
merging into a measure of
consternation.
Speaker: Where am I?
Speaker: I thought.
Speaker: What am I going to do?
Speaker: Stories that I have heard
of travelers being taken from their
Speaker: beds and conveyed into
strange and dangerous places, middle
age
Speaker: stories of the Inquisition
flashed through my brain.
Speaker: I knew all the time that
for a man who had gone to bed in a
commonplace
Speaker: hall bedroom in a very
commonplace little town, such
surmises
Speaker: were highly ridiculous.
Speaker: But it is hard for the
human mind to grasp anything but a
human
Speaker: explanation of phenomena.
Speaker: Almost anything seemed then
and seems now more rational than an
Speaker: explanation bordering upon
the supernatural as we understand
the
Speaker: supernatural.
Speaker: At last I called, though
rather softly.
Speaker: What does this mean?
Speaker: I said quite aloud.
Speaker: Where am I?
Speaker: Who is here?
Speaker: Who is doing this?
Speaker: I tell you I will have no
such nonsense.
Speaker: Speak if there is anybody
here.
Speaker: But all was dead silence.
Speaker: Then suddenly a light
flashed through the open transom of
my door.
Speaker: Somebody had heard me.
Speaker: A man who rooms next door,
a decent kind of man, also here for
Speaker: his health.
Speaker: He turned on the gas in the
hall and called to me What's the
matter?
Speaker: He asked in an agitated,
trembling voice.
Speaker: He is a nervous fellow.
Speaker: Directly when the light
flashed through my transom, I saw
that
Speaker: I was in my familiar hall
bedroom.
Speaker: I could see everything
quite distinctly my tumbled bed, my
writing
Speaker: table, my dresser, my
chair, my little washstand, my
clothes hanging
Speaker: on a row of pegs, the old
picture on the wall.
Speaker: The picture gleamed out
with singular distinctness in the
light
Speaker: from the transom.
Speaker: The river seemed actually
to run and ripple, and the boat to
be
Speaker: gliding with the current.
Speaker: I gazed fascinated at it.
Speaker: As I replied to the anxious
voice, um nothing is the matter with
Speaker: me, said I.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Uh I thought I heard you
speak, said the man outside.
Speaker: I thought maybe you were
sick.
Speaker: No, I called back.
Speaker: I am all right.
Speaker: I'm trying to find my
medicine in the dark, that's all.
Speaker: I can see now you have
lighted the gas.
Speaker: Nothing is the matter No.
Speaker: Sorry I disturbed you.
Speaker: Good night.
Speaker: Good night.
Speaker: Then I heard the man's door
shut after a minute's pause.
Speaker: He was evidently not quite
satisfied.
Speaker: I took a pool at my
medicine bottle and got into bed.
Speaker: It had left the hall gas
burning.
Speaker: I did not go to sleep again
for some time.
Speaker: Just before I did so,
someone, probably misses Jennings,
came
Speaker: out in the hall and
extinguished the gas.
Speaker: This morning when I awoke
everything was as usual in my room.
Speaker: I wonder if I shall have
any such experience tonight.
Speaker: January twenty seventh.
Speaker: I shall write my journal
every day until this draws to some
definite
Speaker: issue.
Speaker: Last night my strange
experience deepened as something
tells me
Speaker: it will continue to do.
Speaker: I retired quite early at
half past ten.
Speaker: I took the precautions on
retiring to place beside my bed on a
Speaker: chair a box of safety
matches, that I might not be in the
dilemma
Speaker: of the night before.
Speaker: I took my medicine on
retiring.
Speaker: That made me due to wake at
half past two.
Speaker: I had not fallen asleep
directly, but had had certainly
three
Speaker: hours of sound, dreamless
slumber when I awoke.
Speaker: I lay a few minutes
hesitating whether or not to strike
a safety
Speaker: match and light my way to
the dresser, whereon stood my
medicine
Speaker: bottle.
Speaker: I hesitated, not because I
had the least sensation of fear, but
Speaker: because of the same
shrinking from a nerve shock that
leads one
Speaker: at times to dread the
plunge into an icy bath.
Speaker: It seemed much easier to me
to strike that match and cross my
Speaker: hall bedroom to my dresser,
take my dose, then return quickly
Speaker: to my bed, than to risk the
chance of floundering about in some
Speaker: unknown limbo, either of
fancy or reality.
Speaker: At last, however, the
spirit of adventure, which has
always been
Speaker: such a ruling one for me,
conquered.
Speaker: I rose.
Speaker: I took the box of safety
matches in my hand and started on.
Speaker: As I conceive the straight
course for my dresser, about five
feet
Speaker: across from my bed, as
before, I travelled and travelled,
and
Speaker: did not reach it.
Speaker: I advanced with groping
hands extended, setting one foot
cautiously
Speaker: before the other, but I
touched nothing except the
indefinite,
Speaker: unnamable surface which my
feet pressed.
Speaker: All of a sudden, though I
became aware of something.
Speaker: One of my senses was
saluted, nay more than that, hailed
with
Speaker: imperiousness and that was,
strangely enough, my sense of smell,
Speaker: but in a hitherto unknown
fashion.
Speaker: It seemed as if the odor
reached my mentality first.
Speaker: I reversed the usual
process, which is, as I understand
it, like
Speaker: this.
Speaker: The odor when encountered
strikes first the olfactory nerve,
which
Speaker: transmits the intelligence
to the brain.
Speaker: It is as if, to put it
rudely, my nose met a rose, and then
the
Speaker: nerve belonging to the
scent said to my brain, here is a
rose.
Speaker: This time my brain said
here is a rose, and my sense then
recognized
Speaker: it.
Speaker: I say rose, but it was not
a rose.
Speaker: That is not the fragrance
of any rose which I had ever known.
Speaker: It was undoubtedly a flower
odor, and rose came perhaps the
nearest
Speaker: to it, but my mind realized
it first with what seemed a leap of
Speaker: rapture.
Speaker: What is this delight?
Speaker: I asked myself, and then
the ravishing fragrance smote my
senses.
Speaker: I breathed it in and it
seemed to fill my thoughts,
satisfying
Speaker: some hitherto unknown
hunger.
Speaker: Then I took a step further,
and another fragrance appeared,
which
Speaker: I likened to lilies for
lack of something better, and then
came
Speaker: violets.
Speaker: Then vignette.
Speaker: I cannot describe the
experience, but it was a sheer
delight,
Speaker: a rapture of subliminated
scents.
Speaker: I groped further and
further and always into new waves of
fragrance.
Speaker: I seemed to be wading
breast high through flower beds of
paradise,
Speaker: but all the time I touched
nothing with my groping hands.
Speaker: At last a sudden giddiness
as a surface overcame me.
Speaker: I realized that I might be
in some unknown peril.
Speaker: I was distinctly afraid.
Speaker: I struck one of my safety
matches and I was in my hall bedroom
Speaker: midway between my bed and
my dresser.
Speaker: I took my dose of medicine
and went to bed, and after a while
Speaker: fell asleep and did not
wake till morning.
Speaker: January twenty eighth.
Speaker: Last night I did not take
my usual dose of medicine.
Speaker: In these days of new
remedies and mysterious results upon
certain
Speaker: organizations, it occurred
to me to wonder if possibly the drug
Speaker: might have, after all,
something to do with my strange
experience.
Speaker: I did not take my medicine.
Speaker: I put the bottle as usual
on my dresser, since I feared if I
interrupted
Speaker: further the customary
sequence of affairs, I might fail to
wake.
Speaker: I placed my box of matches
on the chair beside the bed.
Speaker: I fell asleep about a
quarter past eleven o'clock, and I
waked
Speaker: when the clock was striking
two.
Speaker: A little earlier than my
wont.
Speaker: I did not hesitate this
time, I rose at once, took my box of
matches,
Speaker: and proceeded as formally.
Speaker: I walked what seemed a
great space without coming into
collision
Speaker: with anything.
Speaker: I kept sniffing for the
wonderful fragrances of the night
before,
Speaker: but they did not recur.
Speaker: Instead, I was suddenly
aware that I was tasting something,
some
Speaker: morsel of sweetness
hitherto unknown, as in the case of
the odor,
Speaker: the usual order seemed
reverse, and it was as if I tasted
it first
Speaker: in my mental consciousness.
Speaker: Then the sweetness rolled
under my tongue.
Speaker: I thought involuntarily, if
sweeter than honey or the honeycomb
Speaker: of the scripture, I thought
of the Old Testament Mana.
Speaker: An ineffable content as if
of satisfied hunger seized me, I
stepped
Speaker: forward and I knew savor
was upon my palate.
Speaker: And so on.
Speaker: It was never cloying,
though of such sharp sweetness that
it fairly
Speaker: stung.
Speaker: It was the merging of a
material sense into a spiritual one.
Speaker: I said to myself, I have
lived my life and always have I gone
Speaker: hungry until now.
Speaker: I could feel my brain act
swiftly upon the influence of this
heavenly
Speaker: food as under a stimulant.
Speaker: Then suddenly I repeated
the experience of the night before.
Speaker: I grew dizzy and an
indefinite fear and shrinking were
upon me.
Speaker: I struck my safety match
and was back in my hall bedroom.
Speaker: I returned to bed and soon
fell asleep.
Speaker: I did not take my medicine.
Speaker: I'm resolved not to do so
longer.
Speaker: I am feeling much better.
Speaker: January twenty ninth Last
night to bed as usual, matches in
place,
Speaker: fell asleep about eleven
and waked at half past one.
Speaker: I heard the half hour
strike.
Speaker: I'm waking earlier and
earlier every night.
Speaker: I had not taken my
medicine, though it was on the
dresser as usual.
Speaker: I again took my matchbox in
hand and started to cross the room
Speaker: and as always traversed
strange space.
Speaker: But this night, as seems
faded to be the case, every night,
my
Speaker: experience was different.
Speaker: Last night I neither
smelled nor tasted, but I heard.
Speaker: My lord, I heard the first
sound of which I was conscious was
Speaker: one like the constantly
gathering and receding murmur of a
river,
Speaker: and it seemed to come from
the wall behind my bed where the old
Speaker: picture hang.
Speaker: Nothing in nature except a
river gives that impression of at
once
Speaker: advance and retreat.
Speaker: I could not mistake it.
Speaker: On, ever on came the
swelling murmur of the waves.
Speaker: Past and ever past they
died in the distance.
Speaker: Then I heard above the
murmur of the river a song in an
unknown
Speaker: tongue which I recognized
as being unknown, yet which I
understood,
Speaker: but the understanding was
in my brain, with no words of
interpretation.
Speaker: The song had to do with me,
but with me in unknown futures for
Speaker: which I had no images of
comparison in the past, yet a sort
of
Speaker: ecstasy, as of a prophecy
of bliss filled my whole
consciousness.
Speaker: The song never ceased, but
as I moved on I came into new sound
Speaker: waves.
Speaker: There was the pealing of
bells which might have been made of
crystal
Speaker: and might have summoned to
the gates of heaven.
Speaker: There was music of strange
instruments, great harmonies pierced
Speaker: now and then by small
whispers as of love, and it all
filled me
Speaker: with a certainty of a
future of bliss.
Speaker: At last I seemed the center
of mighty orchestra which constantly
Speaker: deepened and increased
until I seemed to feel myself being
lifted
Speaker: gently but mightily upon
the waves of sound as upon the waves
Speaker: of a sea.
Speaker: Then again the terror and
the impulse to flee to my own
familiar
Speaker: scenes was upon me.
Speaker: I struck my match and was
back in my hall bedroom.
Speaker: I do not see how I sleep
after such wonders.
Speaker: But sleep I do.
Speaker: I slept dreamlessly until
daylight this morning.
Speaker: january thirtieth.
Speaker: I heard yesterday something
with regard to my hall bedroom which
Speaker: affected me strangely.
Speaker: I cannot for the life of me
say whether it intimidated me,
filled
Speaker: me with the horror of the
abnormal, or rather roused to a
great
Speaker: degree my spirit of
adventure and discovery.
Speaker: I was down at the cure, and
was sitting on the veranda, sipping
Speaker: idly my mineral water when
somebody spoke my name.
Speaker: Mr Wheatcroft, said the
voice politely, interrogatively,
somewhat
Speaker: apologetically, as if to
provide for a possible mistake in my
Speaker:identity.
Speaker: I turned and saw a
gentleman whom I recognized at once.
Speaker: I seldom forget names or
faces.
Speaker: He was a mister Addison
whom I had seen considerable of
three
Speaker: years ago at a little
summer hotel in the mountains.
Speaker: It was one of those passing
acquaintances which signify little
Speaker: one way or the other.
Speaker: If never renewed, you have
no regret.
Speaker: If never renewed, you
accept the renewal with no
hesitation.
Speaker: It is in every way
negative.
Speaker: But just now in my feeble,
friendless state, the sight of a
face
Speaker: which beams with pleased
remembrance is rather grateful.
Speaker: I felt distinctly glad to
see the man.
Speaker: He sat down beside me.
Speaker: He also had a glass of the
water.
Speaker: His health, while not as
bad as mine, leaves much to be
desired.
Speaker: Addison had often been in
this town before.
Speaker: He had in fact lived here
at one time.
Speaker: He had remained at the cure
three years, taking the waters
daily.
Speaker: He therefore knows about
all there is to be known about the
town,
Speaker: which is not very large.
Speaker: He asked me where I was
staying and when I told him the
street
Speaker: rather excitedly inquired
the number.
Speaker: When I told him the number,
which is two hundred forty, he gave
Speaker: a manifest start and after
one sharp glance at me sipped his
water
Speaker: in silence for a moment.
Speaker: He had so evidently
betrayed some ulterior knowledge
with regard
Speaker: to my residence that I
questioned him.
Speaker: What do you know about two
hundred forty Pleasant Street?
Speaker: said I.
Speaker: Oh nothing, he replied,
evasively sipping his water.
Speaker: After a little while,
however, he inquired in what he
evidently
Speaker: tried to render a casual
tone, what room I occupied.
Speaker: I once lived a few weeks at
two hundred forty Pleasant Street
Speaker: myself, he said.
Speaker: That house always was a
boarding house, I guess.
Speaker: It had stood vacant for a
term of years before the present
occupant
Speaker: rented it, I believe, I
remarked.
Speaker: Then I answered his
question.
Speaker: I have the hall bedroom on
the third floor, said I.
Speaker: The quarters are pretty
straightened, but comfortable enough
as
Speaker: hall bedrooms go.
Speaker: But mister Addison had
shown such unmistakable
consternation at
Speaker: my reply that then I
persisted in my questioning as to
the cause,
Speaker: and at last he yelled it
and told me what he knew.
Speaker: He had hesitated both
because he shrank from displaying
what I
Speaker: might consider an unmanly
superstition, and because he did not
Speaker: wish to influence me beyond
what the facts of the case
warranted.
Speaker: Um well, I will tell you,
We Croft, he said.
Speaker: Briefly, all I know is
this.
Speaker: When last I heard of two
hundred forty Pleasant Street, it
was
Speaker: not rented because of foul
play which supposed to have taken
place
Speaker: there, though nothing was
ever proved.
Speaker: There were two
disappearances, and in each case, of
an occupant
Speaker: of the hall bedroom which
you now have.
Speaker: The first disappearance was
of a very beautiful girl who had
come
Speaker: here for her health and was
said to be the victim of a profound
Speaker: melancholy induced by a
love disappointment.
Speaker: She obtained board at two
hundred forty and occupied the hall
Speaker: bedroom about two weeks.
Speaker: Then one morning she was
gone, having seemingly vanished into
Speaker: thin air.
Speaker: Her relatives were
communicated with she had not many,
nor friends
Speaker: either, poor girl, and a
thorough search was made, but the
last
Speaker: I knew she had never come
to light.
Speaker: There were two or three
arrests, but nothing ever came of
them.
Speaker: Well, that was before my
day here, but the second
disappearance
Speaker: took place when I was in
the house.
Speaker: A fine young fellow who had
overworked in college.
Speaker: He had to pay his own way,
he had taken colds at the grip.
Speaker: And that and the overwork
about finished him.
Speaker: And he came on here for a
month's rest and recuperation.
Speaker: He had been in that room
about two weeks.
Speaker: A little less.
Speaker: When one morning he wasn't
there.
Speaker: Then there was a great
hullabaloo.
Speaker: It seemed that he had let
fall some hints to the effect that
there
Speaker: was something queer about
the room.
Speaker: But of course the police
did not think much of that.
Speaker: They made arrests right and
left, but they never found him.
Speaker: And the arrested were
discharged.
Speaker: Though some of them are
probably under a cloud of suspicion
to
Speaker: this day.
Speaker: Then the boarding house was
shut up.
Speaker: Six years ago.
Speaker: Nobody would have boarded
there, much less occupied that hall
Speaker:bedroom.
Speaker: But now I suppose new
people have come in and the story
has died
Speaker: out.
Speaker: I dare say your landlord
you will not thank me for reviving
it.
Speaker: I assured him that it would
make no possible difference to me.
Speaker: He looks at me sharply and
asked bluntly if I had seen anything
Speaker: wrong or unusual about the
room.
Speaker: I replied, guarding myself
from falsehood with a quibble that
Speaker: I had seen nothing in the
least unusual about the room, as
indeed
Speaker: I had not, and have not
now, but that may come.
Speaker: I feel that will come in
due time.
Speaker: Last night I neither saw
nor heard nor smelt nor tasted, but
I
Speaker: felt.
Speaker: My first sensation was one
of disappointment.
Speaker: It is the dresser and I am
at the end of it now, I thought.
Speaker: But I soon discovered that
it was not the old painted dresser
Speaker: which I touched, but
something carved, as nearly I could
discover
Speaker: with my unskilled
fingertips with winged things.
Speaker: There were certainly long,
keen curves of wings which seemed to
Speaker: overlay an arabesque of
fine leaf and flower work.
Speaker: I do not know what the
object was that I touched, it may
have
Speaker: been a chest.
Speaker: I may seem to be
exaggerating when I say that it
somehow failed
Speaker: or exceeded in some
mysterious respect of being the
shape of anything
Speaker: I had ever touched.
Speaker: I do not know what the
material was.
Speaker: It was as smooth as ivory,
but it did not feel like ivory.
Speaker: There was a singular warmth
about it, as if it had stood long
Speaker: in hot sunlight.
Speaker: I continued and I
encountered other objects I inclined
to think
Speaker: were pieces of furniture,
of fashions, and possibly of uses
unknown
Speaker: to me.
Speaker: And about them all was this
strange mystery as to shape.
Speaker: At last I came to what was
evidently an open window of large
area.
Speaker: I distinctly felt a soft,
warm wind, yet with a crystal
freshness
Speaker: blow on my face.
Speaker: It was not the window of my
hall bedroom, that I know.
Speaker: Looking out, I could see
nothing.
Speaker: I only felt the wind
blowing on my face.
Speaker: Then suddenly, without any
warning, my groping hands to the
right
Speaker: and left touch living
beings.
Speaker: Beams in the likeness of
men and women palpable creatures.
Speaker: In palpable attire, I could
feel the soft silken texture of
their
Speaker: garments which swept around
me, seeming to half enfold me in
clinging
Speaker: meshes like cobwebs.
Speaker: I was in a crowd of these
people, whatever they were, and
whoever
Speaker: they were, but curiously
enough, without seeing one of them,
I
Speaker: had a strong sense of
recognition as I passed among them.
Speaker: Now and then a hand that I
knew closed softly over mine.
Speaker: Once an arm passed around.
Speaker: Then I began to feel myself
gently swept on and impelled by this
Speaker: softly moving throng.
Speaker: Their floating garments
seemed to fairly wind me about, and
again
Speaker: a soft terror overcame me.
Speaker: I struck my match and was
back in my hall bedroom.
Speaker: I wonder if I had not
better keep my gas burning tonight.
Speaker: I wonder if it be possible
that this is going too far.
Speaker: I wonder what became of
those other people.
Speaker: The man and the woman who
occupied this room.
Speaker: I wonder if I had better
not stop where I am.
Speaker: January thirty first, last
night I saw.
Speaker: I saw more than I can
describe, more than is lawful to
describe.
Speaker: Something which nature has
rightly hidden has been revealed to
Speaker: me.
Speaker: But it is not for me to
disclose too much of her secret.
Speaker: This much I will say that
doors and windows open into an out
of
Speaker: doors to which the
outdoors, which we know is but a
vestibule,
Speaker: and there is a river.
Speaker: There is something strange
with respect to that picture.
Speaker: There is a river upon which
one could sail away.
Speaker: It was flowing silently.
Speaker: For tonight I could only
see.
Speaker: I saw that I was right in
thinking I recognized some of the
people
Speaker: whom I encountered the
night before.
Speaker: Though somewhat strange to
me.
Speaker: It is true that the girl
who disappeared from the hall
bedroom
Speaker: was very beautiful.
Speaker: Everything which I saw last
night was very beautiful to my one
Speaker: sense that could grasp it.
Speaker: I wonder what it would all
be if all of my senses together were
Speaker: to grasp it.
Speaker: I wonder if I had better
not keep my gas burning tonight.
Speaker: I wonder.
Speaker: This finishes the journal
which Mr.
Speaker: Wheatroft left in his hall
bedroom.
Speaker: The morning after the last
entry he was gone.
Speaker: His friend, Mr.
Speaker: Addison, came here, and a
search was made.
Speaker: They even tore down the
wall behind the pitcher, and they
did
Speaker: find something rather queer
for a house that had been used for
Speaker: boarders.
Speaker: Where you would think no
room would have been left run to
waste.
Speaker: They found another room, a
long, narrow one, the length of the
Speaker: hall bedroom, but narrower,
hardly more than a closet.
Speaker: There was no window, no
door, and all there was in it was a
sheet
Speaker: of paper covered with
figures, as if somebody had been
doing sums.
Speaker: They made a lot of talk
about those figures, and they tried
to
Speaker: make out that the fifth
dimension, whatever that is, was
proved.
Speaker: But they said afterwards
they didn't prove anything.
Speaker: They tried to make out then
that somebody had murdered poor Mr
Speaker: Wheatcroft and hit the
body.
Speaker: And they arrested poor Mr
Addison, but they couldn't make out
Speaker: anything against him.
Speaker: They proved he was in the
cure all that night and couldn't
have
Speaker: done it.
Speaker: They don't know what became
of mister Wecroft.
Speaker: And now they say two more
disappeared from that same room
before
Speaker: I rented the house.
Speaker: The agent came and promised
to put the new room they discovered
Speaker: into the hall bedroom and
have everything new, papered and
painted.
Speaker: He took away the picture.
Speaker: Folks hinted there was
something queer about that.
Speaker: I don't know what.
Speaker: It looked innocent enough,
and I guess he burned it up.
Speaker: He said if I would stay he
would arrange it with the owner, who
Speaker: everybody says is a very
queer man, so I should not have to
pay
Speaker: much if any rent.
Speaker: But I told him I couldn't
stay if he was to give me the rent,
Speaker: that I wasn't afraid of
anything myself, though I must say I
wouldn't
Speaker: want to put anybody in that
hall bedroom without telling him all
Speaker: about it.
Speaker: But my boarders would
leave, and I knew I couldn't get any
more.
Speaker: I told him I would rather
have had a regular ghost than what
seemed
Speaker: to be a way of going out of
the house to nowhere and never
coming
Speaker: back again.
Speaker: I moved, and as I said
before, it remains to be seen
whether my
Speaker: ill luck follows me to this
house or not.
Speaker: Anyway, it has no hall
bedroom.
Speaker: So that was the hall
bedroom by Mary E.
Speaker: Wilkins Freeman.
Speaker: Um, this is not the first
story that we have read by her on
this
Speaker: podcast.
Speaker: I definitely enjoyed this
one.
Speaker: So here's the thing.
Speaker: I actually started
recording this story 30 days before
I sat down
Speaker: to do this uh this
analysis.
Speaker: Um, and by golly, you may
be asking yourself, girl, what
happened?
Speaker: You probably don't even
care.
Speaker: But I thought I would share
that this is yet another one where
Speaker: I thought, oh, this'll be
short.
Speaker: This'll be easy breezy.
Speaker: And no, it was not short by
any means, but it was fairly easy.
Speaker: Um, now I am curious when
it was published, was it all
published
Speaker: as a all in all in one
week's edition of this magazine?
Speaker: With um The Gray Woman,
there were three portions for that
story.
Speaker: It is listed in print as
having three portions.
Speaker: So um, oftentimes when
stories are on the longer side, one
thing
Speaker: that the author is able to
do is to structure the story so that
Speaker: readers will want to tune
in next week.
Speaker: The same way TV shows have
their little cliffhanger.
Speaker: Tune in next week to find
out what happens.
Speaker: Well, TV shows used to do
that.
Speaker: Um, I don't know.
Speaker: I feel like it became a
thing in the 90s or maybe the 2000s.
Speaker: That's probably 2000s,
where they they didn't want to give
you
Speaker: a cliffhanger.
Speaker: Instead of tune in next
week, it was just like problem
solved,
Speaker: and Jack has saved the
world once again.
Speaker: And then it became the hey,
let's go ahead and have you just
watch
Speaker: the next episode.
Speaker: What 2020s, 2010s?
Speaker: Let's just binge watch
everything and just consume all now
right
Speaker: away.
Speaker: Um, a lot of times you you
barely have to wait till next season
Speaker: to find out stuff.
Speaker: But I digress.
Speaker: So another story with some
fun vocabulary.
Speaker: Whoop, whoop, I was excited
to see some words that I had not
seen
Speaker: before.
Speaker: That also kind of was
factored into the recording process,
as
Speaker: I had to say, uh oh, let me
let me take a pause, let me look up
Speaker: that word.
Speaker: But you here, you are here
for the analysis, so let's get into
Speaker: it.
Speaker: I um didn't have an
opportunity to really make lots of
bullet
Speaker: points before my recording.
Speaker: And because my recording
was a bit fragmented in the sense
that
Speaker: I didn't do this all in one
go, I am not gonna say that
everything
Speaker: is fresh in mind and I have
all these ideas that are spewing
out.
Speaker: So let's work through it
together.
Speaker: I'm gonna kind of start
with the most obvious is that you
can't
Speaker: teach an old dog new
tricks.
Speaker: So you might be like, what
on earth are you talking about?
Speaker: Well, look, we've got this
guy who is ill, and he has a long
history
Speaker: habit of not making the
best decisions.
Speaker: He's very upfront about
that.
Speaker: Um, the medicine he's taken
is uh is a bit sketchy, also, which
Speaker: is a bit unusual.
Speaker: Like, do you know where you
got this medicine from?
Speaker: Why are you taking this
medicine?
Speaker: I find that a little
peculiar.
Speaker: Is not fatal.
Speaker: He does say up front that
his illness is not life-threatening.
Speaker: So here's the thing.
Speaker: We know that he does not
have a lot of money.
Speaker: If it was a
life-threatening illness, or then I
could see him
Speaker: taking some off label,
off-market, non-doctor prescribed
medication
Speaker: in order to, you know, try
anything, try anything to extend his
Speaker: life a little bit longer,
but it's not life-threatening.
Speaker: And because he feels that
staying in this room, this small
room,
Speaker: that is not really suitable
for a man of his age, his age is 36.
Speaker: Woo, um, he says it proves
the ignominy of the dweller therein.
Speaker: So um did I comprehend what
at once an ignominious and sternly
Speaker: uncompromising thing a hall
bedroom is?
Speaker: Well, he's basically
saying, look, did I understand
immediately
Speaker: that this would be a small,
unremarkable dwelling, something
that's
Speaker: kind of humiliating and
disgraceful and shameful?
Speaker: No, I didn't I didn't
really think about that.
Speaker: I was just like, hey, the
price is right.
Speaker: But it suits me, it's
fitting for me because I am someone
who
Speaker: is filled with deep
humiliation, disgrace, and shame.
Speaker: And so I'm very curious,
what did this man do to make himself
Speaker: feel that he deserves to
possibly stay in this hall bedroom
for
Speaker: the rest of my life?
Speaker: Dun dun dun dun.
Speaker: Um, and he does mention
after the valuables have been
stolen,
Speaker: I have most carefully
locked the stable door.
Speaker: So after the valuables have
been stolen, after what?
Speaker: He squandered the money he
had after he committed some crimes.
Speaker: I get the feeling like this
guy used to be a drunken gambler or
Speaker: something, but that's
that's a feeling I get.
Speaker: He's also um using mineral
waters for his health, staying away
Speaker: from anything else more
lively.
Speaker: So I get the feeling that
maybe alcoholism was a part of his
past.
Speaker: Maybe he had a history with
tremors or something of that nature.
Speaker: He's gotta take this
medicine like every four hours,
which is
Speaker: a little interesting.
Speaker: Um, but he feels like,
yeah, he's sick, and it's not that
he deserves
Speaker: this room because he's
sick.
Speaker: Um, he deserves this room
because of the kind of person he is,
Speaker: pretty much his past
faults.
Speaker: Um, I have lost in
everything.
Speaker: Love, money.
Speaker: I have lost in the struggle
for preferment, right?
Speaker: I've lost in health and
strength.
Speaker: So he's just a big old
loser.
Speaker: He's a big old loser.
Speaker: So you do get the sense
that at one point maybe he tried to
make
Speaker: money and lost, uh, tried
to woo someone to marry him and
lost,
Speaker: or maybe he did have money
and lost it.
Speaker: He did have a fiance or a
wife and lost her, as in she left
him.
Speaker: So maybe he was a not so
nice, not so nice man.
Speaker: But he is here to heal
himself and atone for his mistakes.
Speaker: Alas, can he really atone
for his mistakes?
Speaker: Because he is basically
holed up into this tiny room, um,
where
Speaker: he really only pops out for
a little bit of fresh air every now
Speaker: and then, and that's about
it, you know, nothing else going on.
Speaker: It's and I guess he's not
working because of his illness or
because
Speaker: of all his faults, who
knows?
Speaker: But he's got a tiny little
amount that he put away and he's
invested,
Speaker: and it should be enough if
his investments keep keep up.
Speaker: So maybe he used to have a
lot of money and he squandered it
all
Speaker: through drunkenness and
gambling, and so now here he is, um,
without
Speaker: a job, but he's uh taken
the little bit that he had, put it
away,
Speaker: and he's trying to turn his
life around.
Speaker: You know, that could be a
thing.
Speaker: That could be a thing.
Speaker: I'm all trying to figure
out this man's life.
Speaker: But the um the fact that he
feels this tiny pathetic room is
suitable
Speaker: for him is very something
to be noted.
Speaker: Uh, it is curious what an
annoyance a restriction in diet can
Speaker: be, even to a man who has
considered himself somewhat
indifferent
Speaker: to gastronomic delights.
Speaker: Indifferent to gastronomic
delights.
Speaker: So there was today a
pudding, which I cannot taste, but
which
Speaker: I longed for.
Speaker: So yeah, he's he's known.
Speaker: He's known the good life.
Speaker: He has had gastronomic
delights, he's enjoyed puddings, but
not
Speaker: anymore because his
digestion is all messed up.
Speaker: All right, what else have
we got in the story?
Speaker: Well, let's talk about the
painting.
Speaker: So, just to kind of sum up
our main character who does
disappear,
Speaker: we have, as I said, you
can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Speaker: Being if you are someone
who has done bad things, maybe given
Speaker: in to temptation in life,
chances are you're going to continue
Speaker: to give in to temptation.
Speaker: Like you can lock yourself
away, you could try to hide from the
Speaker: world, but chances are you
will find yourself in a small room
Speaker: where the only thing to
stop you from taking another risk,
to
Speaker: taking another gamble, is
you.
Speaker: So it's not that you like
the fact that you no longer have
love,
Speaker: the fact that you no longer
have your family, the fact that you
Speaker: no longer have money, the
fact that you are forced to stay in
Speaker: accommodations that were
once beneath you is not enough.
Speaker: The fact that you are not
even like out among society, none of
Speaker: these things, your poor
health, none of these things are
enough
Speaker: to stop you.
Speaker: Because at some point it's
just going to be your sheer
willpower,
Speaker: your sheer ability to say,
I am going to resist temptation,
self-discipline,
Speaker: right?
Speaker: And he holds out for a
while, but ultimately he does give
in.
Speaker: He has his matches to try
to remind himself of being safe, of
Speaker: making sure that he's okay.
Speaker: What if I stay a little bit
longer?
Speaker: What if, what if?
Speaker: And he even says at one
point, like, hmm, I wonder if this
thing
Speaker: has gone too far.
Speaker: He's already been warned by
his friend that he hadn't seen in
Speaker: a while.
Speaker: He's been warned.
Speaker: No good has come to anyone
who has stayed in that room.
Speaker: And instead of going back
to the um boarding house immediately
Speaker: and requesting another
room, or um taking his medicine and
knocking
Speaker: himself out, he continues
to do what he has done before, which
Speaker: is to test the waters and
not take the medicine, to go to
sleep,
Speaker: and then to wake up and
find himself in the void, and of
course,
Speaker: to never return.
Speaker: Because lo and behold,
those things that were oh so
tempting,
Speaker: the appeal of the strongest
of things that tickle our senses.
Speaker: Um, those familiar hands,
right?
Speaker: Just the idea of something
else has ultimately allowed him to
Speaker: or convinced him to uh
leave the current existence, leave
Earth,
Speaker: right?
Speaker: Just gone, he's just gone.
Speaker: Okay, so that old dog who
gave into temptation earlier in
life,
Speaker: which led to his living in
squalor, of course, could not resist
Speaker: temptation when he was
surrounded by it.
Speaker: Even in a tiny hall
bedroom.
Speaker: Okay, we also learn from um
our the boarding house lady, the
lady
Speaker: who the landlady, yes.
Speaker: So she had a good marriage,
you know, things were things were
Speaker:fine.
Speaker: She wasn't super high up in
society, but lo and behold,
unfortunately
Speaker: for her, she just didn't
have enough money after her husband
had
Speaker: passed.
Speaker: And so she found herself
having to pack up from the house
that
Speaker: she once shared with her
husband, um, sell some things, move
out,
Speaker: and then try to become a
landlady elsewhere.
Speaker: And I gotta wonder how did
that feel, right?
Speaker: Um my parents had died when
I had been married a short time.
Speaker: So she hasn't been married
very long when all of a sudden she
Speaker: loses her parents.
Speaker: So I was left quite alone
in the world.
Speaker: And let's see here.
Speaker: I am a highly respectable
woman.
Speaker: I m may style myself a
gentlewoman in my youth.
Speaker: I enjoyed advantages, I was
well brought up.
Speaker: I graduated from series.
Speaker: So she came from a good
background.
Speaker: I also married well.
Speaker: My husband was the most
gentle of all merchants and
apothecary.
Speaker: He had a little shop, and
all was good and where I lived until
Speaker: the death of my husband.
Speaker: So she was all good until
he died.
Speaker: He died, then her parents
died, and she was left with a
business
Speaker: she didn't know how to deal
with.
Speaker: Therefore, I was obliged to
sell at a considerable sacrifice.
Speaker: And the proceeds were all I
had in the world.
Speaker: Okay, so it's not like she
died and someone said, Ah, well,
here's
Speaker: your uh here's the money he
left you in his passing.
Speaker: And it's not like her
parents died and said, you know,
here's
Speaker: that inheritance.
Speaker: And so we do have a
cautionary tale of, hey, on one
hand, be aware
Speaker: of what's going on with
your money and your family, because
she
Speaker: is not somebody who was
raised to even be a landlady.
Speaker: She is someone who probably
thought she'd be taken care of all
Speaker: of her life by her husband.
Speaker: That's just kind of how
things were.
Speaker: And she didn't know
anything about his business, running
that
Speaker:business.
Speaker: Her and her husband kind of
took things for granted, as well as
Speaker: her parents took things for
granted.
Speaker: And that kind of re goes to
the idea that even today, so many
Speaker: of us take things for
granted, right?
Speaker: Um buy today because you
want whatever it is that you want to
Speaker: buy, not really thinking
about the fact that yes, you have a
job
Speaker: now, but will you have a
job tomorrow?
Speaker: Or yes, you're in good
health today, but will you be in
good health
Speaker: tomorrow?
Speaker: And we could say that the
same applies for the young man who
boards
Speaker: from her.
Speaker: Um, is that he took things
for granted, right?
Speaker: He had taken for granted
his ability to stay strong.
Speaker: In the face of temptation,
and to be able to just think that
all
Speaker: he needed was a little
money and a little room, and that's
gonna
Speaker: solve whatever was his
ultimate downfall, whatever it was
that
Speaker: led him to having to live
this kind of lifestyle.
Speaker: So um, unfortunately, our
landlady, she has to give up this
property
Speaker: in the end because no one
wants to rent from her if they think
Speaker: that they're gonna
mysteriously disappear in the middle
of the
Speaker: night and never be found.
Speaker: So she's gotta go ahead and
try renting elsewhere.
Speaker: And I like that she refers
to it as her ill luck.
Speaker: Well, that might let my ill
luck follow me, right?
Speaker: Or was it really that
house?
Speaker: Interesting, interesting.
Speaker: And we could kind of apply
this idea of ill luck to the guy who
Speaker: was renting.
Speaker: So he does say, um, he said
that he had been, I think he's I
think
Speaker: I just mentioned he had
been unlucky.
Speaker: Uh da-da-da.
Speaker: Pretty sure I have lost in
love.
Speaker: Oh, he said I he he lost.
Speaker: Okay, he didn't necessarily
like say that he had been unlucky.
Speaker: But there are a lot of
people who feel that when bad things
happen
Speaker: in life, man, I can't
believe this.
Speaker: My car broke down, I lost
my job, um, my spouse just walked
down
Speaker: on me, my cat died, I don't
know, whatever, right?
Speaker: My kids hate me, all these
things.
Speaker: It can feel like,
especially when it happens in waves,
like one
Speaker: right after the other, kind
of like her husband died, then her
Speaker: parents died, it can feel
like, man, I just can't catch a
break.
Speaker: I just have the worst luck
ever.
Speaker: But so much of the things
that happen to us are very much
man-made.
Speaker: So even though a lot of
things have happened in this woman's
life,
Speaker: the landlady's life, she at
least is trying to say, okay, let
Speaker: me see if I can still make
a living for myself.
Speaker: Because she too could have
just taken her little five thousand
Speaker: dollars and decided she's
gonna go live in a hall bedroom
somewhere.
Speaker: But she makes an attempt at
extending the quality of her life
Speaker: by being in control of her
finances, probably for the first
time
Speaker: in her life, and um the
residence that she stays in.
Speaker: So she's renting from
someone and then renting out the
room.
Speaker: So she's doing a different
approach than the guy who
disappears,
Speaker: who he instead of trying to
turn his life around by um going
beyond
Speaker: this medication, but maybe
seeking additional help, he decides
Speaker: he's gonna try to um hide
away, self-medicate, and then then
things
Speaker: will get better.
Speaker: Doesn't quite work out for
him.
Speaker: The mysterious picture on
the wall.
Speaker: I don't really have a whole
lot to say about that.
Speaker: I'm sure there's probably
some like nautical theme there, but
Speaker: like I said, my um ability
to pre pre-prep for this one was on
Speaker: the limited side.
Speaker: So nothing really say about
that painting.
Speaker: Sounds interesting.
Speaker: I kind of feel like it was
a bit of a device.
Speaker: I I feel um Wilkins Freeman
did an excellent job of just
allowing
Speaker: us to compare these two
crazy characters and apply that to
our
Speaker: own lives.
Speaker: It's not like everybody
reading this in Colors Weekly was
sitting
Speaker: around going, oh my
goodness, what about the painting on
our wall,
Speaker: dear?
Speaker: Maybe we'll disappear.
Speaker: But the idea that if you do
not resist the temptations that are
Speaker: already leading to harmful
events in your life, and if you are
Speaker: not paying attention to
what's going on around you, then you
yourself
Speaker: will cease to be relevant
and possibly cease to exist.
Speaker: That's something we could
all relate to.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: So, anyway, hope you
enjoyed that story.
Speaker: I thought it was a good
one.
Speaker: I hope you enjoyed this
story and do come back for another
Gothic
Speaker: tale.