Page:The Man Who Died Twice (1924).djvu/55

 Of mortal average to a colder sleep

Than has a waking, he awoke one day

Late in the afternoon, miraculously

In bed again and wondering, as before,

How this time he had got there. Looking up,

He met the face of Bach upon the wall,

Who bowed at him, gravely but not unkindly;

And he, not yet alive to what was coming,

And not to be defective in attention

To a great master, bowed acknowledgment;

Whereat the salutations were repeated,

And there was a preparatory silence,

Heavy with strangeness and expectancy,

Which would have been a monitory dread—

But for the master’s nod of satisfaction

And interest in the coming through a keyhole

Of a slow rat, equipped with evening dress,