A thousand annoying
imaginations harassed and excited me, every object which I looked
upon, though ever so familiar, seemed to have acquired a strange
phantom-like character, the varying shadows thrown by the flickering
of the lamp-light, seemed shaping themselves into grotesque and
unearthly forms, and whenever my eyes wandered to the sleeping figure
of my husband, his features appeared to undergo the strangest and most
demoniacal contortions. Hour after hour was told by the old clock, and
each succeeding one found me, if possible, less inclined to sleep than
its predecessor. It was now considerably past three; my eyes, in their
involuntary wanderings, happened to alight upon the large mirror which
was, as I have said, fixed in the wall opposite the foot of the bed. A
view of it was commanded from where I lay, through the curtains, as I
gazed fixedly upon it, I thought I perceived the broad sheet of glass
shifting its position in relation to the bed; I rivetted my eyes
upon it with intense scrutiny; it was no deception, the mirror, as
if acting of its own impulse moved slowly aside, and disclosed a dark
aperture in the wall, nearly as large as an ordinary door; a figure
evidently stood in this; but the light was too dim to define it
accurately. It stepped cautiously into the chamber, and with so little
noise, that had I not actually seen it, I do not think I should
have been aware of its presence.
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