Excerpt from Sebastian David slept badly. For this, the winter cough, that had irritated his wife's sensitiveness even in the first year of their marriage, was probably responsible. Va nessa always asserted that he was asthmatic, and certainly he was short of breath. Although he was habitually an insomniac, to-night he had woken with a start, suddenly, as if from some external cause. He lay still for a few moments, his heart beating quickly, his pulses throbbing. What had startled him, how had he been roused? He opened his eyes. Darkness was in the room, and quiet. He occupied the back room on the second floor; the blinds were drawn, the outlook was on to the mews. Perhaps Dr. Gifford's brougham, unusually late, had driven its noisy way over the cobbled stones. But in that case he would hear the clink of harness, the rattle of unsteady hoofs, voices in the yard. He listened, but outside all was still. The big Harley Street house had been built in the Georgian era, the walls were thick, and it was silence they seemed to hold. Black night alone filled the room, and stillness. He shrank a little from both, lying there, hearing his own heart-beats, hearing nothing else, at first. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.