I had to open a door; and when it swung to behind me and latched, I turned around and looked at it, as if I never expected it to open again.

I almost think I fainted, if one can faint standing, for when I knew anything, after the appalling latching of that door, I was in quite another part of the room and the candle which I still held, looked to my dazed eyes shorter than when I started with it from the place where my sister lay.
"I was wasting time.

The thought drove me to the table.

I caught up the receiver and when central answered, I said something about The Whispering Pines and wanting help.

This is all I remember about that.
"Some time afterward--I don't know when--I was stumbling down the stairs on my way out.