It was covered
with a white cloth. He took it off. The vessel was about four feet high,
round, and shaped somewhat like a washing tub, but it was made of glass
more than an inch thick. In it a spherical mass, a little larger than a
football, of a peculiar, livid colour. The surface was smooth, but rather
coarsely grained, and over it ran a dense system of blood-vessels. It
reminded the two medical men of those huge tumours which are preserved in
spirit in hospital museums. Susie looked at it with an incomprehensible
disgust. Suddenly she gave a cry.
'Good God, it's moving!'
Arthur put his hand on her arm quickly to quieten her and bent down with
irresistible curiosity. They saw that it was a mass of flesh unlike that
of any human being; and it pulsated regularly. The movement was quite
distinct, up and down, like the delicate heaving of a woman's breast when
she is asleep. Arthur touched the thing with one finger and it shrank
slightly.
'Its quite warm,' he said.
He turned it over, and it remained in the position in which he had placed
it, as if there were neither top nor bottom to it.
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