Ardath by Marie Corelli
page 57 of 769 (07%)
page 57 of 769 (07%)
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"True!" he said softly, almost humbly, "I will tell you everything
while I remember it,--though it is not likely I shall ever forget! I believe there must be some truth after all in what you say concerning the Soul, ... at any rate, I do not at present feel inclined to call your theories in question. To begin with, I find myself unable altogether to explain what it was that happened to me during my conversation with you last night. It was a very strange sensation! I recollect that I had expressed a wish to be placed under your magnetic or electric influence, and that you had refused my request. Then an odd idea suggested itself to me-- namely, that I could if I chose COMPEL your assent,--and, filled with this notion, I think I addressed you, or was about to address you, in a rather peremptory manner, when--all at once--a flash of blinding light struck me fiercely across the eyes like a scourge! Stung with the hot pain, and dazzled by the glare, I turned away from you and fled ... or so it seemed--fled on my own instinctive impulse ... into DARKNESS!" He paused and drew a long, shuddering breath, like one who has narrowly escaped imminent destruction. "Darkness!" he went on in low accents that thrilled with the memory of a past feat--"dense, horrible, frightful darkness!-- darkness that palpitated heavily with the labored motion of unseen things!--darkness that clung and closed about me in masses of clammy, tangible thickness,--its advancing and resistless weight rolled over me like a huge waveless ocean--and, absorbed within it, I was drawn down--down--down toward some hidden, impalpable but All Supreme Agony, the dull unceasing throbs of which I felt, yet could not name. 'O GOD!' I cried aloud, abandoning myself to |
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