But that is not enough. Very early indeed,
when she had been a stolid-faced little girl with a hot desire for
the doll possessed by her neighbour, she had had for nurse a woman
who rejoiced in supernatural events. With ghost stories of the most
terrifying kind she besieged Grace's young heart and mind. The child
had never imagination enough to visualise these stories in the true
essence, but she seized upon external detail-the blue lights, the
white shimmering garments, the moon and the church clock, the
clanking chain and the stain of blood upon the board.
These things were not for her, and indeed did she allow her fancy to
dwell, for a moment, upon them she was besieged at once by so horrid
a panic that she lost all control and self-possession. She therefore
very quickly put those things from her and thenceforth lived in the
world as in a castle surrounded by a dark moat filled with horrible
and slimy creatures who would raise a head at her did she so much as
glance their way.
She decided then never to look, and from a very early age those
quarters of life became to her "queer," indecent, and dangerous.
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