much.
The moment the candles were extinguished the grimness sensibly
increased, and he could feel all around him, thickly amalgamated with
the ether, a superphysical presence, at once hostile and horrible.
Then, to bring his terror to a climax, there issued from the bath a
loud rubbing and splashing, as if some one, some very heavy person,
was vigorously washing. The water rose and fell, squished and bubbled
as it does when one is lying at full length in it, raising and
lowering oneself, kicking and plunging first on one side and then on
the other. Whilst, to add to the realism, Captain Smythe distinctly
heard gasping and puffing; and the soft, greasy sound of a well-soaped
flannel. He could indeed follow every movement of the occupant of the
bath as graphically as if he had seen him--from the brisk scrubbing of
body and legs to the finicky process of cleaning the ears and toes.

It was whilst the bather was occupied thus that the cupboard door
began to open very quietly and stealthily, and Captain de Smythe heard
the chair he had so carefully placed against it being gradually
propelled across the floor.

Then something, he would have given anything to tell what, came out
and began to steal towards him. He tried to crawl out of its way, but
could not; his limbs no longer acted conjointly with his brain, and
when he opened his mouth to shout at it, his voice withered away in
his throat. It came up to him, and directly it touched his naked skin
he knew it was a woman--a woman with a much-beflounced silk skirt and
silk petticoats--a woman whose person was perfumed with violets (a
scent for which the Captain had a particular weakness), and without
doubt, loaded with jewellery. Her behaviour did not betray any
symptoms of embarrassment when she encountered the Captain lying on
the floor, but, planting one icy-cold high-heeled shoe on his chest
and the other on his cheek, she stepped on him as if he had been an
orthodox cushion or footstool, purposely placed there for her
convenience. A hollow exclamation, which died away in a gasp, issued
from the bath, as the woman, with a swift movement of her arms, threw
something over it. What followed, the Captain could only surmise, but
from the muttered imprecations and splashes in the water, it seemed to
him that nothing short of murder was taking place. After a while the
noises in the bath grew feebler and feebler, and when they finally
ceased, the woman, with a sigh of relief, s