ressing table of my husband's; when she
had reached it, she paused again, and appeared to listen attentively
for some minutes; she then noiselessly opened one of the drawers from
which, having groped for some time, she took something which I soon
perceived to be a case of razors; she opened it and tried the edge
of each of the two instruments upon the skin of her hand; she quickly
selected one, which she fixed firmly in her grasp; she now stooped
down as before, and having listened for a time, she, with the hand
that was disengaged, groped her way into the dressing room where Lord
Glenfallen lay fast asleep. I was fixed as if in the tremendous spell
of a night mare. I could not stir even a finger; I could not lift my
voice; I could not even breathe, and though I expected every moment to
see the sleeping man murdered, I could not even close my eyes to shut
out the horrible spectacle, which I had not the power to avert. I saw
the woman approach the sleeping figure, she laid the unoccupied hand
lightly along his clothes, and having thus ascertained his identity,
she, after a brief interval, turned back and again entered my chamber;
here she bent down again to listen. I had now not a doubt but that the
razor was intended for my throat; yet the terrific fascination which
had locked all my powers so long, still continued to bind me fast. I
felt that my life depended upon the slightest ordinary exertion, and
yet I could not stir one joint from the position in which I lay, nor
even make noise enough to waken Lord Glenfallen. The murderous woman
now, with long, silent steps, approached the bed; my very heart seemed
turning to ice; her left hand, that which was disengaged, was upon
the pillow; she gradually slid it forward towards my head, and in
an instant, with the speed of lightning, it was clutched in my hair,
while, with the other hand, she dashed the razor at my throat. A
slight inaccuracy saved me from instant death; the blow fell short,
the point of the razor grazing my throat; in a moment I know not how,
I found myself at the other side of the bed uttering shriek after
shriek; the wretch was, however, determined if possible to murder me;
scrambling along by the curtains, she rushed round the bed towards me;
I seized the handle of the door to make my escape; it was, however,
fastened; at all events I could not open it, from the mere instinct
of recoiling terror, I shrunk back into a corner--she was now within
a yard of me-