It seemed almost hopeless, but Dyson regarded himself as the Wellington of mysteries, and went to bed feeling assured that sooner or later he would hit upon the right track For the next few days he was deeply engaged in his literary labours, labours which were a profound mystery even to the most intimate of his friends, who searched the railway bookstalls in vain for the result of so many hours spent at the Japanese bureau in company with strong tobacco and black tea. Oddly curious to know what it might contain, he picked it up and put it in his pocket, and set out afresh on his journey. ', 'It was pleasantundeniably pleasant. He lifted the bed of wool on which the opal had reclined, and saw beneath, no more jewels, but a little old pocket-book, worn and shabby with use. People used to see them walking out together in the summer evenings soon after they came to Harlesden, and, so far as could be observed, they seemed a very affectionate couple. That must have been convenient. Arthur Machen. While I was getting out my pouch, I looked up in the direction of the houses, and as I looked I felt my breath caught back, and my teeth began to chatter, and the stick I had in one hand snapped in two with the grip I gave it. Once her soul was placed in this new vessel, something else suddenly inhabited her body. No? 'Let me see,' he said at last, 'we were at the inquest, weren't we? You may remember my saying that I was impressed a good deal by some remarks of one of the doctors who gave evidence at the inquest. 'Look over it, will you?' Dyson opened it at the first leaf, and dropped the book again appalled. '"I suppose you are not a man of science yourself? ', 'How the dickens is that? The Inmost Light, one of Arthur Machen's most disturbing stories, involves a doctor's scientific experiments into occultism, and the vampiric force instigated by his unrelenting curiosity regarding the unseen elements. The street lamps were few and at long intervals, and burned behind grimy glasses with the sickly light of oil, and by this wavering glimmer Salisbury could make out the shadowy and vast old houses of which the street was composed. I am no dealer in unproved theories; what I say I have proved for myself, and at a terrible cost. Perhaps we might find a cipher of some sort, though I hardly think we shall.'. Only at the end of the room was it possible to stand upright, and the sight of the wretched bed and the odour of corruption that pervaded the place made me turn faint and sick. Arthur Machen was a leading Welsh author of the 1890s. Here's the address. However, as I have begun, I will go on. Black had called in another medical man to certify as to cause of death, and something or other had aroused the strange doctor's suspicions and there had been an inquest and post-mortem. I asked. Here I found him munching a piece of bread; he seemed surprised to find that I had kept my promise, but he gave me his chair and sat on the bed while we talked. Dyson went up to the oak cupboard, and drew from its depths a rotund bottle and two little glasses, quaintly gilded. I won't ask you to come in now, but perhaps some other day" I caught him up at that, and told him I should be only too glad to come and see him. "What science do you mean?""The science of the great city; the physiology of London; literally and metaphysically the greatest subject that the mind of man can conceive. She shuddered, and wept, and called on her dead mother for help, and asked me if I had no mercy, and I could only sigh. IBut it's such a trivial matterindeed, such an absurditythat I feel ashamed to trouble you with it. 'Isn't it too bad that I should let myself be bothered by such stuff as that?' Summary of 5 reviews. Keeping back in the shadow of the wall, he could see the two drawing nearer; the man was evidently drunk, and had much ado to avoid frequent collision with the wall as he tacked across from one side to the other, like some bark beating up against a wind. ", '"The brain of a devil." David Tibet. And yet, to put the doctor's opinion on one side, I knew what I had seen. I turned to the bed where my wife was sleeping peacefully, and lay down again, weeping bitter tears, for the sun had set on our happy life and had risen with a dawn of terror to us both. I didn't think it worth while to beat about the bush, so I began by saying that part of his evidence at the Harlesden Inquest struck me as very peculiar, and I gave him the printed report, with the sentences in question underlined. The sheer folly of the thing offended him, and he was ashamed of his own eager speculation, as one who pores over the high-sounding announcements in the agony column of the daily paper, and finds nothing but advertisement and triviality. ", '"Quite so; the verdict was given in accordance with the evidence of my colleague and myself, and, under the circumstances, I think the jury acted very sensibly. Adding in Where The Long Shadows Fall and The Stars Are Marching Sadly Home to the picture means that the album is essentially bookended by two long ambient pieces, allowing for a deeper establishment . But I don't know that I should call what was written on the paper nonsense; it is bizarre certainly, but I expect it has a meaning for somebody. ONE evening in autumn, when the deformities of London were veiled in faint blue mist, and its vistas and far-reaching streets seemed splendid, Mr. Charles Salisbury was slowly pacing down Rupert Street, drawing nearer to his favourite restaurant by slow degrees. What is your opinion of the matter?". It's also his first story with Dyson, a character in four Machen works who has sometimes been called an occult detective. Richard WAGNER Siegfried &Twilight of the Gods Arthur RACKHAM Heinemann . Hampstead, I mean, is where you look for the head of your great China house with his three acres of land and pine-houses, though of late there is the artistic substratum; while Norwood is the home of the prosperous middle-class family who took the house "because it was near the Palace," and sickened of the Palace six months afterwards; but Harlesden is a place of no character. At last I told her all. Not to put too fine a point on it, I have had to confess that what I found out, or thought I found out, amounts in reality to nothing. I have always considered it in the light of an endowment of my researches. Only t the end of the room was it possible to stand upright, and the sight of the wretched bed and the odor of corruption that pervaded the place made me turn faint and sick. If you knew, if you could even dream of what may be done, of what one or two men have done in this quiet world of ours, your very soul would shudder and faint within you. Didn't you say that you had been bothered by somethingsomething which happened that night we dined together? I went again to Harlesden, and passed from one shop to another, making small purchases, and trying to find out whether there was anything about the Blacks which was not already common property, but there was very little to hear. The Inmost Light The Inmost Light by Arthur Machen The Inmost Light is a masterful story revealing the confessions of a scientist of the occult-- pieced together clues by two busy-body acquaintances, who turn nothing into something.terrifying. I used to go to see him often, and we had long conversations together, but he never mentioned Harlesden or his wife. His face was white with terror as he turned away, and for a moment stood sick and trembling, and then with a start he leapt across the room and steadied himself against the door. Jobs at the Library; Here again was life; rare vintages of France and Italy, at prices which seemed contemptibly small, allured the passer-by; here were cheeses, vast and rich, here olive oil, and here a grove of Rabelaisian sausages; while in a neighbouring shop the whole Press of Paris appeared to be on sale. Now!'. However, his wife's uninhabited body becomes a. He looked at the stone again, with a feeling that was almost awe, and placed it gently on the table under the lamp, and watched the wonderful flame that shone and sparkled in its centre, and then turned to the box, curious to know whether it might contain other marvels. and with this he was turning away, but by little and little I contrived to draw him into the current of conversation, and we walked together eastward. Maybe you've already read or have heard of this story. Series: Dyson Chronicles. Used for all hardbacks of any size. Enjoy our complete collection, Gothic, Ghost, Horror & Weird Library, Return to the Arthur Machen library , or . I think I remember your telling me that you owed five weeks' rent, and that you had parted with your watch for a comparatively small sum. He picks it up, but it seems like the writing is nothing more than sheer folly. Salisbury gives the paper to Dyson, who is able to put together the pieces. Nothing will content the fellow but blood, vulgar red blood, and when he can get it he lays it on thick, and considers that he has produced a telling article. You may regard the discovery, if it is one, as your own. 'What did you do then?' Description: Paperback. He gave me an odd sort of glance, as if he were wondering what on earth I or anybody else could care about him, and I left him fumbling with his latch-key. You seem in pretty comfortable circumstances, though. Even at that hour, if I had gone out and taken a rope and hanged myself, I might have escaped, and she also, but in no other way. You are mistaken, my dear fellow, you are really mistaken. I didn't mention the fact that I had seen a woman's face in the window; but I heard that Mrs. Black had been much admired for her beautiful golden hair, and round what had struck me with such a nameless terror, there was a mist of flowing yellow hair, as it were an aureole of glory round the visage of a satyr. '"Justified! As fate or my luck would have it, the door opened and a man came down the steps as I passed by. Cover by Matthew Jaffe. See all reviews. Add to Cart The man slunk piteously out of his own shop, and went into a back parlour. It is about an unnamed narrator whose husband, John , is a . The Inmost Light 52. by Arthur Machen. But however that may be, I can't conceive a greater loneliness in a desert at midnight than there is there at midday. The Inmost Light by Machen, Arthur Seller Bonita Condition Good ISBN 9781528704090 Item Price $ 41.24. 'Ever since I was a young man'the record began'I devoted all my leisure and a good deal of time that ought to have been given to other studies to the investigation of curious and obscure branches of knowledge. I managed to get up at last, and walked round to the street, and there I saw the name "Dr. Black" on the post by the front gate. "The brain of a devil," he repeated, "and I have no doubt that Black found some way of putting an end to it. You pass instantly from town to country; there is no transition as in a small country town, no soft gradations of wider lawns and orchards, with houses gradually becoming less dense, but a dead stop. "The Inmost Light" is a 1894 short novel by Welsh author and mystic Arthur Machan, originally published along with "The Great God Pan" in John Lane's Keynotes Series. The light came and went by turns, as the clouds passed by, and, turning round as the clear, white rays shone into the passage, Salisbury saw the little ball of crumpled paper which the woman had cast down. An influential writer of supernatural fiction, Arthur Machen was born in Wales, in 1863. Members: Reviews: Popularity: Average rating: Conversations: 17: None: 1,034,229 (3.13) 1: Salisbury took up the paper and crumpled it as the angry woman had done, and aimed it at the fire. The words I had seen were simply, "The Harlesden Case," and I knew what I was going to read. Nothing disagreed with you, has it? In a couple of minutes he could make out the shrill, raucous voice of a woman, threatening and renouncing, and making the very stones echo with her accents, while now and then a man grumbled and expostulated. It's a poor notion. From her look I fancy she took me for a plain-clothes officer after one of her lodgers, but when I inquired if Mr. Black were in, she gave me a stare of another kind. In the shelves of an oak armoire stood jars and plates of old French china, and the black and white of etchings not to be found in the Haymarket or in Bond Street, stood out against the splendour of a Japanese paper. 1 KentonSem. The paper happens to land near Salisburys feet. Publisher's Summary. 'I beg your pardonwasn't looking where I was going. has had to go and see his friends in Paris,' it began. He did not throw it there, however, but tossed it carelessly into the well of the desk, and laughed again. 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