James Henry. The Turn of the Screw

Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT, SAT, GRE, LSAT, GMAT, and AP English Test PreparationThe story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the
obvious remark that it was gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a
strange tale should essentially be, I remember no comment uttered till somebody
happened to say that it was the only case he had met in which such a visitation
had fallen on a child. The case, I may mention, was that of an apparition in just
such an old house as had gathered us for the occasion- an appearance, of a
dreadful kind, to a little boy sleeping in the room with his mother and waking
her up in the terror of it; waking her not to dissipate his dread and soothe him to
sleep again, but to encounter also, herself, before she had succeeded in doing so,
the same sight that had shaken him. It was this observation that drew from
Douglas-not immediately, but later in the evening- a reply that had the
interesting consequence to which I call attention. Someone else told a story not
particularly effective, which I saw he was not following. This I took for a sign
that he had himself something to produce and that we should only have to wait.
We waited in fact till two nights later; but that same evening, before we
scattered, he brought out what was in his mind.