dy's face. Very lovely in contour, but devoid
of coloring; not beautiful, but winning from its childlike look of
trust. The hair, banded upon the low, broad forehead, was brown; the
eyes, which were very far apart, gray; the mouth, which was its most
charming feature, delicate of make and very expressive. There was
a dimple in the chin, but none in the cheeks. It was a face to be
remembered."

"Go on," said I.

"Meeting the gaze of those imploring eyes, I started up. Instantly the
face and all vanished, and I became conscious, as we sometimes do in
dreams, of a certain movement in the hall below, and the next instant
the gliding figure of a man of imposing size entered the library.
I remember experiencing a certain thrill at this, half terror, half
curiosity, though I seemed to know, as if by intuition, what he was
going to do. Strange to say, I now seemed to change my personality,
and to be no longer a third party watching these proceedings, but Mr.
Leavenworth himself, sitting at his library table and feeling his doom
crawling upon him without capacity for speech or power of movement to
avert it. Though my back was towards the man, I could feel his stealthy
form traverse the passage, enter the room beyond, pass to that stand
where the pistol was, try the drawer, find it locked, turn the key,
procure the pistol, weigh it in an accustomed hand, and advance again.
I could feel each footstep he took as though his feet were in truth upon
my heart, and I remember staring at the table before me as if I expected
every moment to see it run with my own blood. I can see now how the
letters I had been writing danced upon the paper before me, appearing
to my eyes to take the phantom shapes of persons and things long ago
forgotten; crowding my last moments with regrets and dead shames, wild
longings, and unspeakable agonies, through all of which that face, the
face of my former dream, mingled, pale, sweet, and searching, while
closer and closer behind me crept that noiseless foot till I could
feel the glaring of the assassin's eyes across the narrow threshold
separating me from death and hear the click of his teeth as he set his
lips for the final act. Ah!" and the secretary's livid face showed the
touch of awful horror, "what words can describe such an experience as
that? In one moment, all the agonies of hell in the heart and brain,
the next a blank through which I seemed to see afar, and as if suddenly
removed from all this, a