‘“I have always been rather fond of going over empty houses, with the nails sticking in the walls, and the dust thick upon the window-sills. But I didn’t enjoy going over Number 20 Paul Street. I had hardly put my foot inside the passage before I noticed a queer, heavy feeling about the air of the house. Of course all empty houses are stuffy, and so forth, but this was something quite different; I can’t describe it to you, but it seemed to stop the breath.”’
The Great God Pan, Arthur Machen
Absence Club 