Chapter 26 of 28 · 2'32"
Rick and Pamela decide they cannot leave Stella at Miss Holloway's, and Dr. Scott agrees. "The idea of her spending an hour in that place is horrible," Pamela says, and they plan to go that night without the commander's permission, taking the casebook to frighten Miss Holloway into letting Stella go.
The House That Drives Them to Drink
The Plan to Rescue Stella
Late at night Rick and Pamela work through what they have found. The scent of mimosa leads them to the nursery, and the ghost of Mary Meredith seems close. Dr. Scott arrives and says he is worried not about the commander but about Stella, who is at Miss Holloway's retreat. They decide to get Stella out that night, with or without permission.
The rescue is planned like a piece of detective work, with drinks to steady the nerves. The house keeps producing its evidence — the scent of mimosa, the nursery, the couple of murders that turn up in the records — and Rick and Pamela treat it half as a puzzle and half as a threat. The line that shifts the tone is the doctor's: "It's not him I'm worried about. It's Stella." Once Stella is in the retreat, the mystery stops being a game, and Pamela's certainty — "The idea of her spending an hour in that place is horrible" — decides the plan. They will go without authority, take the casebook, and pile it on to frighten Miss Holloway, which tells you how much they are improvising.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“But it's an ideal house for delirium tremens.”
A dry joke turns a haunted house into a stage for a drunkard's nightmares, and the calm makes it worse.
Informal
“It's not him I'm worried about. It's Stella.”
Denial and then a name: the line shifts everyone's worry onto Stella in one breath.
Neutral
“The idea of her spending an hour in that place is horrible.”
Naming the mere thought of it, not the danger itself, shows how deeply it disturbs her.
Neutral
“Awful if we took to drink, both of us.”
A self-mocking what-if loosens a tense night talk; the darker the joke, the worse the fix.
Informal
Up next · 27beating about the bushThe scene: Holloway Sends Stella HomeBecause she is at Miss Holloway's retreat and they believe it is dangerous for her. Pamela says the idea of Stella spending an hour in that place is horrible.
Commander Beech is too ill to give permission, and they have no authority over Stella. They decide to act without it rather than wait.
They think they might frighten Miss Holloway with it. They will describe what they have found and then pile it on, exaggerating to force her to release Stella.
It is the ghost's trace at Windward House. The scent came from the nursery the night before, and it is strongest where Mary Meredith seems to be.
