He kept roaming about the room
in a very distressed and restless manner, prophesying all sorts of
disasters, winding up with the assertion that it would not at all
surprise him if at any moment the house were to tumble down about our
ears and bury the whole lot of us in its ruins. It was, however, all
of no use. He could not succeed in frightening us; and the four of us
continued to play whist, and now and then threw out at him a few
chaffing remains on his lugubrious and unhappy state. But later on we
had a tremendous shock, and for the moment it seemed as if part of his
prognostications were to come only too true. It appeared that the iron
bar across one of the windows in my bedroom to the west, looking on to
the river, leading oft the sitting room in which we were seated, had
given way, and the wind bursting through the closely-barred shutters
with irresistible fury had forced open the door of communication
between the two rooms. Most fortunately the shutters held or the whole
flat would have been completely wrecked. It took all our combined
efforts some time to force back the door and securely-fasten it by
jamming a music stool and chairs up against it.
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