The Dweller on the Threshold by Robert Hichens

One night of that autumn, driven by an overmastering impulse, Evelyn / Malling set out toward Kensington. He felt that he must know something / more of the matter between Marcus Harding and Henry Chichester. Stepton / still kept silence. Malling had not approached him. But why should he not / call upon Chichester, an acquaintance, almost a friend? It was true that / he had resolved, having put the affair into Stepton's hands, to wait. It / had come to this, then, to-night that he could be patient no longer? As / he stood at the corner of Hornton Street, he asked himself that question. / He drew out his watch. It was already past eleven, an unholy hour for an / unannounced visit. But slowly he turned into Hornton Street, slowly went / down that quiet thoroughfare till he was opposite to the windows of the / curate's sitting-room. A light shone in one of them. The rest of the / house was dark. Even the fanlight above the small front door displayed no / yellow gleam. No doubt the household had retired to rest and Henry / Chichester was sitting up alone. A rap would probably bring him down to / open to his nocturnal visitor. But now Malling bethought himself / seriously of the lateness of the hour, and paced slowly up and down, / considering whether to seek speech of the curate or to abandon that idea / and return to Cadogan Square. As in his mental debate he paused once more / opposite to the solitary gleam in the first-floor window, an incident / occurred which startled him, and gave a new bent to his thoughts. It was / this: The light in the window was obscured for a moment as if by some / solid body passing before it.

Then the window was violently thrown up, / the large figure of a man, only vaguely perceived by Malling, appeared at / it, and a choking sound dropped out into the night. The man seemed to be / leaning out as if in an effort to fill his lungs with air, or to obtain / the relief of the cool night wind for his distracted nerves. His attitude / struck Malling as peculiar and desperate. Suddenly he moved. The light / showed, and Malling saw for an instant a second figure, small, slight, / commanding. The big man seemed to be sucked back toward the center of the / room. Down came the window; the tranquil gleam of the light shone as / before; then abruptly all was dark.