I had seen Edward but once during his visit, and as I did not meet
him again, I began to think that he must have taken his departure; a
conviction which was to a certain degree satisfactory, as I regarded
his absence as indicating the removal of immediate danger. Emily also
arrived circuitously at the same conclusion, and not without good
grounds, for she managed indirectly to learn that Edward's black horse
had actually been for a day and part of a night in the castle stables,
just at the time of her brother's supposed visit. The horse had gone,
and as she argued, the rider must have departed with it.
This point being so far settled, I felt a little less uncomfortable;
when being one day alone in my bed-room, I happened to look out from
the window, and to my unutterable horror, I beheld peering through an
opposite casement, my cousin Edward's face. Had I seen the evil one
himself in bodily shape, I could not have experienced a more sickening
revulsion. I was too much appalled to move at once from the window,
but I did so soon enough to avoid his eye. He was looking fixedly down
into the narrow quadrangle upon which the window opened. I shrunk back
unperceived, to pass the rest of the day in terror and despair. I went
to my room early that night, but I was too miserable to sleep.
At about twelve o'clock, feeling very nervous, I determined to call
my cousin Emily, who slept, you will remember, in the next room, which
communicated with mine by a second door.
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