her that he was at that moment in a sound
sleep. She did so; and, greatly to my
astonishment, he acquitted himself in a manner
that could beget no suspicion. He spoke
with his usual softness and sweetness; but, in
a deprecating tone, as if he feared she knew
something for which her pardon could not be
expected. Thus he succeeded in disguising
what was within, whenever she visited him
during the few days he kept his chamber. I
alone, who was almost constantly at his side
during that time, knew the mighty effort it cost
him to put on the appearance of calmness and
convalescence which was necessary to allay her
solicitude, and thereby to keep the doctor out
of his room. In the daytime, not a word
could reach his ear from below, but it excited
in him the wildest terror; and this passion,
more or less at work while light remained,
appeared to me to keep his mental faculties
entire, though it suspended them. But at
night, after the first transient effect of the
cordial I administered had passed away—
which was one of spasmodic or hysterical
mirth—and its intended influence began to
operate, then the murder in the summer-
house, and the after-burial of the body, would
swim back into his soul and come out of him
in disjointed and distorted sentences; so that,
what I had witnessed was represented to me
with a vividness that made me shudder, and
sometimes almost impelled me to fly from him.

When he awoke, he would be very pressing
with me to tell him whether he had said
anything in his sleep; and, if so, what it was,—
that we might laugh over the extravagance,
as he and his friend at Rome had formerly
done! Laugh over it!—he laughed, with that
chilly sweat upon him which matted his
eyebrows and gummed his hair into thick strings
upon his forehead. I repeated some incoherent
words; half-finished clauses of a sentence;
the whole bearing a very remote relation
to the subject of his dream; so remote,
indeed, that his fears, however active, could
not lead him to suppose that he had
betrayed himself. Then he sank back
comforted. But once, when taking the hint from
a word that had escaped him, I said that he
had been talking at random of the sale, and
of what had taken place there, he looked
greatly surprised, and regarded me with distrust.
But presently his doubts were dismissed,
"It is so in delirium," he said; "we then
speak of things which, awake, never come
into our thoughts." Night and morning I
prayed in behalf of the poor, lost creature, and
my sleep was the better for it. I was fortified
against anything that might happen
from day to day.

I had enough to do to divide my attention
without resorting to my studies; which, from
that time, were abandoned. I did indeed
read; but in a desultory manner, and books
which I might lay aside at a moment's notice.
If I could have fixed my attention on any
subject demanding an exercise of my faculties,
Garston would have prevented the attempt.
My mother now almost entirely kept her
room; but, when she and her husband met,
an estrangement was evident, which, so far as
I could judge, had been tacitly agreed upon.
He was as respectful as ever in his manner;
but I remarked at a distance and in silence,
that he durst not or could not take her hand;
yet he watched her every movement with the
utmost anxiety. Her presence withdrawn
from him, he attached himself to me. He
hung about me on all occasions; following me
wherever I went, under pretence of gleaning
from me some of the fruits of my classical
studies. He had neglected, he said, so as
almost to have forgotten the Greek and
Roman authors; but this was his mere
excuse for persecuting me with his continual
presence; for, whatever the subject of our
conversation, he always contrived, with
painful ingenuity, to deviate from it; entering
upon shrewd conjectures concerning crime,
and its consequences to the criminal in this
world. If detected—he grew pale at the
suggestion—the criminal must suffer death; but
if he escaped detection might he not yet
live to be a happy man? It was a curious
subject of inquiry, was it not? I, to whom
the unwelcome, the unhappy power had
been given of reading the thoughts of
the wretched man with something like
correctness, could perceive, that, unaccustomed
to seek consolation in the Scriptures,
he had been recently looking into them,
not with a view to his soul's welfare; but
for examples of God's forbearance towards
sinners. He denied that the punishment of
Heaven ever fell upon guilt in this world;
contending that the rashness, over-security,
or imprudence of men brought them to an
end which, to the superficial, seemed like the
effect of a judgment; but when I cited
instances of men convicted of crime by some
chance which not the sagacity of Satan
could have foreseen, he turned away
hurriedly, ordered his horse, and was not
seen again for hours. I cannot yet quite
understand the fascination which drew him
so constantly to a subject over which he
would hover with a morbid persistence that
might have been dangerous in any company
but mine.

One morning, a week after that memorable
night, my mother desired to see me in her own
room. Garston, who was present when I was
summoned, changed countenance. He dreaded
all private talk on the part of others;
even the sudden and hasty entrance of a
servant into the room discomposed him. I
obeyed, and left him. I found my mother
greatly agitated. She bade me sit by her
side.

"Arthur," she said. "I want your advice.
You are growing quite a young man, my love.
You see: I sent Anna away from me for
reasons which I need not mention; but I
wish you to believe they were sufficient