say, the back part of the eye, tough, iridescent stuff it is,

wouldn't go at all.

"It was night outside long before the business was over, and nothing

was to be seen but the dim eyes and the claws. I stopped the gas

engine, felt for and stroked the beast, which was still insensible,

and then, being tired, left it sleeping on the invisible pillow and

went to bed. I found it hard to sleep. I lay awake thinking weak

aimless stuff, going over the experiment over and over again, or

dreaming feverishly of things growing misty and vanishing about me,

until everything, the ground I stood on, vanished, and so I came to

that sickly falling nightmare one gets. About two, the cat began

miaowing about the room. I tried to hush it by talking to it, and

then I decided to turn it out. I remember the shock I had when

striking a light--there were just the round eyes shining green--and

nothing round them. I would have given it milk, but I hadn't any. It

wouldn't be quiet, it just sat down and miaowed at the door. I tried

to catch it, with an idea of putting it out of the window, but it

wouldn't be caught, it vanished. Then it began miaowing in different

parts of the room. At last I opened the window and made a bustle. I

suppose it went out at last. I never saw any more of it.

"Then--Heaven knows why--I fell thinking of my father's funeral

again, and the dismal windy hillside, until the day had come. I

found sleeping was hopeless, and, locking my door after me,

wandered out into the morning streets."

156

The Invisible Man