CHAPTER ELEVEN

I stayed on the stairway until I felt pretty certain he would not return. When I came back to my room, the first thing I did was check to make sure that Flora was still sleeping. The one remaining candle that I had left in the bedroom had gone out. The room was very dark now. I walked over to her bed and held the candle above it. She was not there! Suddenly, all the fear that I had not felt earlier came into me. I lifted the blankets to see if she might be hiding there, but found nothing. Then, I noticed that the curtains were blowing much harder than before. I walked over to them and my foot accidentally hit something. The bottom of the curtains began to move upward and then little Flora appeared from behind. Standing there in the candlelight, she looked to me like an angel. But she seemed to be upset. A strong feeling that I had lost a little bit of her love came over me very suddenly.

"Bad woman," she said, "Where did you go?"

I did not bother to question her about her own behavior, but did my best to make up a suitable explanation for her. I then fell back into a chair that sat next to my bed. I felt extremely calm now that I knew Flora was safe. It seemed that she had woken up while I was away and noticed that my bed was empty. She had been trying to find me afterward.

Flora ran over to me and sat on my legs. Her face, in the candlelight, looked sleepy. I laid my head back against the chair and shut my eyes for a moment. "Did you go to the window to see if I was outside walking about?" I asked.

"It seemed like there was a person out there, so I went to look," she answered.

"And was there anyone there?" My eyes were once again open. She had my full attention now.

"No no no, there wasn't," she answered, almost in a singing voice. It seemed that she had expected me to ask her this question. I knew that she was not telling me the truth. I wanted very much to tell her I knew she was lying. I wanted to question her and get the truth from her. I wanted to say, "We both know that something is happening here. Stop playing this game with me and let's be honest with each other. Then we can, at least, understand each other and live with the truth." However, I did not say this. I fought against it. Now, looking back, I wished that I had said it instead of doing what I did next.

I stood up suddenly and, looked at her bed. "Flora, when I came back to the room, I did not notice that you were out of your bed until I came much closer. It's because I saw that you had pulled the curtain over a part of the bed. Did you want me to believe that you were still sleeping there?"

She did not answer right away. She stood there before me, thinking for a moment. "I did not want to make you frightened," the clever little girl said.

"If you saw that I was gone, why would you have felt the need to ... "

"I knew you'd return. And, look, here you are!"

She did not seem to think that there was anything strange about her behavior. In fact, she had become quite bored with our conversation. Immediately, she climbed back into bed and fell asleep. I, however, could not sleep. It was clear to me now, just how important it was that I had returned.

From that night, I made sure to watch the children and the house more closely. Once I felt that Flora was asleep, I would get up and search the home. In all the times I searched, Quint never once reappeared on the stairway. I did, however, have a different experience one night.

After having searched the entire second floor of the house, I went to the stairway in order to go to the floor below and have a look around. As I began to walk down, I saw a woman sitting at the bottom of the staircase. We did not face each other, but I could see that she was upset. I stood watching her for about twenty seconds and then she disappeared before me. I did not have to see her face to know that it was Miss Jessel. In fact, I am glad that I did not meet her on my way back upstairs, because her appearance frightened me more than Quint's. Her face, although very beautiful, was so white and evil looking.

After almost two weeks of spending my nights this way, searching the house, I remembered beginning to feel the need for more sleep. One evening, after I'd finished looking around, I decided to go to bed. I fell asleep right away. For three hours I slept very well. Then I woke up very suddenly and found that the candle I had left lighted between mine and Flora's beds had recently been blown out. Smoke was still rising from it. I knew almost right away that Flora had put it out.

I got out of bed and walked over to hers. She was not there. I then lit a match and walked over to the window. She was standing there, looking outside. She would have no excuses to give this time. She had blown out my candle and, again, covered her bed with the curtain in order to cheat me. And I knew, by the way she did not notice me, or the light of my match, that she could see something outside now. Her attention was completely given to whatever or whomever stood beyond the window. I even had time to put on my gown and shoes. She did not once move as I approached the window behind her. I could see that she was looking down into the horrible face of the woman we had seen at the lake.

I decided to let this continue and, meanwhile, looked for another window that I could look out of and watch them both. Having managed to open the bedroom door without Flora noticing, I walked into the hallway. I tried thinking which window had the best view of the lawn and then remembered that Miles' room stood directly above the spot where I had seen the woman standing. But what if Miles were to awaken? He would know exactly what I was doing! I walked up to his door and listened for a while. It was possible that he might be awake as well, looking out of his window. Putting my ear to the door, the room sounded very quiet. I decided that I could not enter. He might not be doing anything wrong. And it was Flora that I was presently dealing with, not him. But where else could I go?

An idea then came to me. There was a very large master bedroom, down the hallway. Its position in the house was just in front of and below the tower Quint had stood watching me from. It was much too big to use as an actual bedroom, so for many years it had remained empty. When I say empty, I mean empty of people, for it was full of beautiful, old furniture. I entered the room very quietly and then walked over to one of the windows. Once I managed to move away the curtain and open the window, I saw another person on the lawn. He was looking up in my direction, and for a moment I feared that I had been seen; however, I found that it was not me that the person was looking at. He was looking at a higher part of the house. He was looking at the tower. There was someone in the tower! All this time that I spent looking out at the figure, I felt ill with surprise and terror, for the figure down below was not whom I had expected to see. The person standing outside was Miles.

(end of section)