The fact that people are going to stare at him
and follow him around and seem afraid of him, can be explained only on
the hypothesis that they will somehow have been prepared for his ghostly
visitation. They will have been awfully waiting to see whether he really
would come. And when he does come the effect will of course
be--awful.
An authentic, guaranteed, proved ghost, but; only a ghost, alas!
Only that. In his first visit Soames was a creature of flesh and blood,
whereas the creatures among whom he was projected were but ghosts, I
take it--solid, palpable, vocal, but unconscious and automatic ghosts, in a
building that was itself an illusion. Next time that building and those
creatures will be real. It is of Soames that there will be but the
semblance. I wish I could think him destined to revisit the world
actually, physically, consciously. I wish he had this one brief escape, this
one small treat, to look forward to. I never forget him for long. He is
where he is and forever. The more rigid moralists among you may say he
has only himself to blame. For my part, I think he has been very hardly
used. It is well that vanity should be chastened; and Enoch Soames's
vanity was, I admit, above the average, and called for special treatment.
But there was no need for vindictiveness. You say he contracted to pay
the price he is paying. Yes; but I maintain that he was induced to do so
by fraud.
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