The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-12-03

ing at the face of the corpse, les. he might un
nerve himself at the outset, by fixing some
CHASTITY impression of it on his mind He drew
the curtain very gently, and sighed involuntar
y as he closed it. Poor fellow /" he said
almost as sadly as if he had known the man
"Ah, poor fellow /"
He went next to the window; the night was
black, and he could see nothing from it. The
rain still battered heavily against the glass. He
inferred, from hearing it. that the window was
at the back of the house; remembering that
the front was sheltered from the weather by the
court and the buildings over it.
While he was stil standing at the window
Tor even the dresry rain was relief, because
OF the sound it made; a relief, also, because II
moved, and had some faint suggestion, in con.
sequence of life and companonship in it
while he was standing at the window. looking
vacantly into the black darkness outside. he
heard distant church clock strike ten. Only
ten How was he to pass the time till the
mouse was astir the next morning?
Under any other circumstances, he would
nave gone down to the public house parlcr,
~ouio nave called tor his grog, and would have
laughed and talked with the COMPANY Assem-.
bled as familiary as if he had known them all
his life. But the very thought of Willing away
the time in this manner was now distastefnl 70
him. The new situation in which he was placed
seemed to have altered him to himself already.
mus lar, his life had been the common, trifiing.
prosaic, surface-life, of prosperous young
man, with no troubles to conquer, and no trials
TO face. lie had lost no relation whom he
loved, no friend whom he treasured. Till this
night, what share he had of the immortal in.
heritance that is divided among US all. had lain
dormant with him. Till this night, Death and
he had not once met, even in thought.
de took few turns up and down the room
then stopped. The noise made by his boots on
the Photographed floor Jared on his ear He
hesitated little, and ended by taking the boots
on, and walking backward and forward noise
iessiy. All desire to sleep or rest had left him.
The bare thought of lying down on the unoccu
pied bed instantly drew the picture on his mind
OF a dreadful mimicry of the position of the
dead man. Who was he? What was the
story of his past lfe2 Poor he must have
been, or ne would not have stopped at such a
place as The Two Robins Inn-and weakened.
probably, by long illness, or he could hardly
nave died III the manner which the landlord
had described. Poor, ill., loney-dead in a
strange place; dead, with nobody but a stran.
ger to pity him. A sad story; truly, on the
mere face of it, very sad story.
While these thoughts were passing through
his mind, he had stopped insensiby at the win
dow, close to which stood the foot of the bed
with the closed curtains. At first, he looked at
1t absently; then he became conscious that his
eyes were fixed on it; and then a perverse de-
SIRE took possession of him to do the very thing
which he had resolved not to do up to this time
to look at the dead man.
de stretched out his hand toward the curtains.
but checked himself in the very act of undraw
ing them turned his back sharply on the bed.
and walked toward the ehimney.piece, to see
what things were placed in it, and to try if he
could keep the dead man out of his mind in
that way.
There was pewter inkstand on the chimney.
piece, with some widowed remains of ink in
the bottle. There were two coarse china orna.
ments OF the commonest kind; and there was
square of embossed card, dirty and hy-blowp.
with collection Of wretchsd riddles die g gs4.ed
went away, to read it, to the table on which the
candle was placed sitting down, with his back
resolutely turned to the curtained bed
He read the first riddle, the second, the third,
all in one corner of the card-then turned it
round impatiently to look at another. Before
he could begin reading the riddles printed here,
the sound of the church clock stopped him.
Eleven. He had got through an hour of the
time, in the room with the dead man,
Once more he looked at the card. 1t was
not easy TO make out the letters printed on it,
in consequence of the dimness of the light
which the landlord had left him-a common
tallow candle, furnished with pair of heavy
old-fashioned steel shutters. Up to this time,
his mind had been too much occupied to think
of the light. He had left the wick of the can
die unsnuffed, till it had risen higher than the
fame, and had burnt into an odd penthouse
shape at the top, from which morsels of the
charred cotton fell off, from time to time, in
little flakes. He took up the snuffers now, and
trimmed the wick. The light frightened di-
rectly, and the room became less dismal.
Again he turned to the riddles; reading them
doggedly and resolutely, now in ons corner of
the card, now in another All his efforts, how.
ever, could not fix his attention on them. He
pursued his occupation mechanically, deriving
no sort of impression from what he was read.
ing. 1t was as if a shadow from the curtained
bed had got between his mind and the gayly-
printed letters-a shadow that nothing could
dispel. At last he gave up the struggle, and
| threw the card from him impatiently, and took
to walking softly up and down the room again.
| The dead man, the dead man, the hidden
| dead man, on the bed There was the one
persistent idea still haunting him. Hidden
Was it only the body being there, or vas it the
body being there concealed, that was preying
on his mind. He stopped at the window, with
that doubt in him once more listening to the
pattering rain, once more looking out into the
black darkness.
! Still the dead man The darkness forced
his mind back upon itself, and set his memory
at work, reviving, with painfully.vivid distinct
ness, the momentary impression it had received
from his first sight of the corpse. Before long,
the face seemed to be lowering out in the mid.
die of the darkness, confronting him through
| fhax md -. al
dreadful dull line of light between the imper
fectly closed eyelids broader than he had seen
it-with the parted lips slowly dropping further
and further away from each other-with the
features growing larger and moving closer, till
they seemed to fill the window and to silence
the rain, and to shut out the night.
The sound of voice; shouting below stairs,
woke him suddenly from the dream of his own
distempered fancy. He recognised it as the
voice Of the landlord.
Shut up at twelve, Ben," he heard it say.
"Pm off to bed"
He wiped away the damp that had gathered
on his forehead, reasoned with himself fcs lit
tie while, and resolved to shake his mind free
of the ghastly counterfeit which still chung to it,
by forcing himself to confront, if it was only for
moment, the solemn reality. Without allowing
himself an instant to hesitate, he parted the
curtains at the foot of the bed, and looked
through,
There was the sad, peaceful, white face, with
the awful mystery of Stiffness on il, laid back
upon the pillow, No stir. no change therel BE
only looked at it for a moment before he closed
the curtains again but that moment steadied
him, Gained him, restored him - mind and
body-to himself
He returned to his old occupation ofwalking
| up and down the room persevering in it, this
| time, till the clock struck again.