“Friday—­They held the inquest.  He had been known for years past as an inveterate drunkard, he had been seen overnight going home in liquor; he had been found locked up in his room, with the key inside the door, and the latch of the window bolted also.  No fire-place was in this garret; nothing was disturbed or altered:  nobody by human possibility could have got in.  The doctor reported that he had died of congestion of the lungs; and the jury gave their verdict accordingly.”

12.

“Saturday.—­Marked forever in my calendar as the memorable day on which the judgment descended on me.  Toward three o’clock in the afternoon—­in the broad sunlight, under the cloudless sky, with hundreds of innocent human creatures all around me—­I, Hester Dethridge, saw, for the first time, the Appearance which is appointed to haunt me for the rest of my life.

“I had had a terrible night.  My mind felt much as it had felt on the evening when I had gone to the play.  I went out to see what the air and the sunshine and the cool green of trees and grass would do for me.  The nearest place in which I could find what I wanted was the Regent’s Park.  I went into one of the quiet walks in the middle of the park, where the horses and carriages are not allowed to go, and where old people can sun themselves, and children play, without danger.

“I sat me down to rest on a bench.  Among the children near me was a beautiful little boy, playing with a brand-new toy—­a horse and wagon.  While I was watching him busily plucking up the blades of grass and loading his wagon with them, I felt for the first time—­what I have often and often felt since—­a creeping chill come slowly over my flesh, and then a suspicion of something hidden near me, which would steal out and show itself if I looked that way.

“There was a big tree hard by.  I looked toward the tree, and waited to see the something hidden appear from behind it.

“The Thing stole out, dark and shadowy in the pleasant sunlight.  At first I saw only the dim figure of a woman.  After a little it began to get plainer, brightening from within outward—­brightening, brightening, brightening, till it set before me the vision of MY OWN SELF, repeated as if I was standing before a glass—­the double of myself, looking at me with my own eyes.  I saw it move over the grass.  I saw it stop behind the beautiful little boy.  I saw it stand and listen, as I had stood and listened at the dawn of morning, for the chiming of the bell before the clock struck the hour.  When it heard the stroke it pointed down to the boy with my own hand; and it said to me, with my own voice, ‘Kill him.’

“A time passed.  I don’t know whether it was a minute or an hour.  The heavens and the earth disappeared from before me.  I saw nothing but the double of myself, with the pointing hand.  I felt nothing but the longing to kill the boy.

“Then, as it seemed, the heavens and the earth rushed back upon me.  I saw the people near staring in surprise at me, and wondering if I was in my right mind.