The Darrow Enigma | Page 8

soon found the profession, so distasteful
to him that he practically abandoned it in favour of scientific research.
True, he still occasionally took a legal case when it turned upon
scientific points which interested him, but, as he once confessed to me,
he swallowed, at such times, the bitter pill of the law for the sugar
coating of science which enshrouded it. This legal training could,
therefore, it seems to me, have made no deep or radical change in his
character, which leads me to think that the self-control he exhibited,
despite the angry disgust with which I know Browne's so apparent
attentions to Gwen inspired him, must, for the most part, have been

native to him rather than acquired.
Nothing worthy of record occurred until evening; at least nothing
which at the time impressed me as of import, though I afterward
remembered that Darrow's behaviour was somewhat strange. He
appeared singularly preoccupied, and on one occasion started nervously
when I coughed behind him. He explained that a disagreeable dream
had deprived him of his sleep the previous night and left his nerves
somewhat unstrung, and I thought no more of it.
When the light failed we were all invited into the parlour to listen to a
song by Miss Darrow. The house, as you are perhaps aware, overlooks
Dorchester Bay. The afternoon had been very hot, but at dusk a cold
east wind had sprung up, which, as it was still early in the season, was
not altogether agreeable to our host, sitting as he was, back to, though
fully eight feet from, an open window looking to the east. Maitland,
with his usual quick observation, noticed his discomfort and asked if he
should not close the window. The old gentleman did not seem to hear
the question until it was repeated, when, starting as if from a reverie, he
said: "If it will not be too warm for the rest of you, I would like to have
it partly closed, say to within six inches, for the wind is cold"; and he
seemed to relapse again into his reverie. Maitland was obliged to use
considerable strength to force the window down, as it stuck in the
casing, and when it finally gave way it closed with a loud shrieking
sound ending in the bang of the counterweights. At the noise Darrow
sprang to his feet, exclaiming: "Again! The same sound! I knew I could
not mistake it!" but by this time Gwen was at his side, pressing him
gently back into his seat, as she said to him in an undertone audible to
all of us: "What is it, father?" The old gentleman only pressed her
closer by way of reply, while he said to us apologetically: "You must
excuse me, gentlemen. I have a certain dream which haunts me, - the
dream of someone striking me out of the darkness. Last night I had the
same dream for the seventh time and awoke to hear that window
opened. There is no mistaking the sound I heard just now; it is identical
with that I heard last night. I sprang out of bed, took a light, and rushed
down here, for I am not afraid to meet anything I can see, but the
window was closed and locked, as I had left it! What do you think,

Doctor," he said, turning to me, "are dreams ever prophetic?"
"I have never," I replied, anxious to quiet him, "had any personal
experience justifying such a conclusion." I did not tell him of certain
things which had happened to friends of mine, and so my reply
reassured him.
Maitland, who had been startled by the old gentleman's conduct, now
returned to the window and opened it about six inches. There was no
other window open in the room, and yet so fresh was the air that we
were not uncomfortable. Darrow, with ill-concealed pride, then asked
his daughter to sing, and she left him and went to the piano. "Shall I not
light the lamp?" I asked. "I think we shall not need it," the old
gentleman replied, "music is always better in the gloaming."
In order that you may understand what follows, it will be necessary for
me to describe to you our several positions in the room. The apartment
is large, nearly square, and occupies the southeast corner of the house.
The eastern side of the room has one window, that which had been left
open about six inches, and on the southern side of the room there were
two windows, both of which were securely fastened and the blinds of
which had been closed by the painters who, that morning, had primed
the eastern and southern sides of the house, preparatory to giving it a
thorough repainting. On the north