John Russell: It's my understanding... that there are, uh... twenty-three students registered... for this series of lectures on advanced musical form. Now, we all know it's not raining outside, and unless there's a fire in some other part of the building that we don't know about, there's an awful lot of people here with nothing better to do.
Minnie Huxley: That house is not fit to live in. No one's been able to live in it. It doesn't want people.
Answer: It was implied to be his "spirit" or "soul" that John saw.
TedStixon