CHAPTER THE FIRST.

An open door.

I think I was as nearly mad as I could be; nearer madness, I believe, than I shall ever be again, thank God!  Three weeks of it had driven me to the very verge of desperation.  I cannot say here what had brought me to this pass, for I do not know into whose hands these pages may fall; but I had made up my mind to persist in a certain line of conduct which I firmly believed to be right, while those who had authority over me, and were stronger than I was, were resolutely bent upon making me submit to their will.  The conflict had been going on, more or less violently, for months; now I had come very near the end of it.  I felt that I must either yield or go mad.  There was no chance of my dying; I was too strong for that.  There was no other alternative than subjection or insanity.

It had been raining all the day long, in a ceaseless, driving torrent, which had kept the streets clear of passengers.  I could see nothing but wet flag-stones, with little pools of water lodging in every hollow, in which the rain-drops splashed heavily whenever the storm grew more in earnest.  Now and then a tradesman’s cart, or a cab, with their drivers wrapped in mackintoshes, dashed past; and I watched them till they were out of my sight.  It had been the dreariest of days.  My eyes had followed the course of solitary drops rolling down the window-panes, until my head ached.  Toward nightfall I could distinguish a low, wailing tone, moaning through the air; a quiet prelude to a coming change in the weather, which was foretold also by little rents in the thick mantle of cloud, which had shrouded the sky all day.  The storm of rain was about to be succeeded by a storm of wind.  Any change would be acceptable to me.

There was nothing within my room less dreary than without.  I was in London, but in what part of London I did not know.  The house was one of those desirable family residences, advertised in the Times as to be let furnished, and promising all the comforts and refinements of a home.  It was situated in a highly-respectable, though not altogether fashionable quarter; as I judged by the gloomy, monotonous rows of buildings which I could see from my windows:  none of which were shops, but all private dwellings.  The people who passed up and down the streets on line days were all of one stamp, well-to-do persons, who could afford to wear good and handsome clothes; but who were infinitely less interesting than the dear, picturesque beggars of Italian towns, or the sprightly, well-dressed peasantry of French cities.  The rooms on the third floor—­my rooms, which I had not been allowed to leave since we entered the house, three weeks before—­were very badly furnished, indeed, with comfortless, high horse-hair-seated chairs, and a sofa of the same uncomfortable material, cold and slippery, on which it was impossible to rest.