2.16 - The Door in the Wall

The story begins with someone telling about a story another man had told them, which they did not believe to be true, though they had when it was being told. They ponder the story, and begins to retell the previous night. The man telling the story, Wallace, began by saying he was being haunted, not by the supernatural, but by a longing of sorts. It then goes back to explain their relationship, having gone to school together, but that Wallace had gone on to be far more successful. He retells the story, as Wallace explained that "the Door in the Wall" came to him first when he was a very young boy. He tells that the Door evoked a certain emotion in him, a desire to open it, but also a knowledge not to. So he went on pretending not to notice the door, but eventually ran and burst through it, coming into a garden. And he tells of how beautiful the garden was, and that it had a certain air to it that caused exhilaration. The garden also had to leopards in it, playing with a ball, that came up to him and purred. The garden must have been magical, he tells, as it made him forget all his worrying to be obedient and fears. He played with the leopards and ran about in the garden, until a tall girl came upon him, and carried him along through the garden to a palace. Everyone they came across in the garden was friendly and loving, and the young Wallace found playmates, though what they played he could never remember. And a woman came and took him off to show him a sort of biography that had moving pictures in it. But it didn't show the garden, it showed him crying in the street, and then he was there, crying because he couldn't return to his playmates. When he returned home, his nurse and father questioned him, then thrashed him for telling lies about the magical garden. His fairy-tale books were taken away for him being too imaginative, and he dreamt of the garden often, but never tried to find his way back to it. But later, while he was at school playing an adventure game, he saw the Door again, but didn't go in, as not to be late for school. But at school he told another boy about the garden, who told other boys about it, and so young Wallace was teased for it. So he told them he could show them the Door, but when he went back to where it was it was gone, and he got beaten up. He saw the door again when he was seventeen, on his way to Oxford. But it was just in passing and he was too surprised to stop the cab. So he continued on and got a scholarship to Oxford. And he went on to fulfill his career, but he still dreamt of the garden. Once, after returning to London from Oxford, he was going to call on someone he loved, and took a shortcut, in which he saw the Door, but again did not enter. As he became more successful, and worked through the years, he saw the Door three times, but still didn't enter. He tells that he wanders about at night, looking for the Door.

The story then goes on to explain that Wallace had been found dead, presumably having gone through an unfastened door that lead into an underground railway, and had fallen to his death.