The doctor sat up in bed. no sound but the faint roar of the air conditioner. why was he thinking about it tonight in a hotel room in the parker meridien? for a moment he couldn't shake the feeling of the old house. he saw the woman again — her bent head, her vacant stare. he could almost hear the hum of the insects against the screens of the old porch. and the brown-eyed man was speaking without moving his lips. a waxen dummy infused with life— –the witching hour, anne rice what is the tone of the passage?