The Deserted House | Page 6

life by my entrance into the mysterious
house, my adventures began. The following day, as I walked through
the avenue in the noon hour, and my eyes sought the deserted house as
usual, I saw something glistening in the last window of the upper story.
Coming nearer I noticed that the outer blind had been quite drawn up
and the inner curtain slightly opened. The sparkle of a diamond met my
eye. O kind Heaven! The face of my dream looked at me, gently
imploring, from above the rounded arm on which her head was resting.

But how was it possible to stand still in the moving crowd without
attracting attention? Suddenly I caught sight of the benches placed in
the gravel walk in the center of the avenue, and I saw that one of them
was directly opposite the house. I sprang over to it, and leaning over its
back, I could stare up at the mysterious window undisturbed. Yes, it
was she, the charming maiden of my dream! But her eye did not seem
to seek me as I had at first thought; her glance was cold and unfocused,
and had it not been for an occasional motion of the hand and arm, I
might have thought that I was looking at a cleverly painted picture.
I was so lost in my adoration of the mysterious being in the window, so
aroused and excited throughout all my nerve centers, that I did not hear
the shrill voice of an Italian street hawker, who had been offering me
his wares for some time. Finally he touched me on the arm, I turned
hastily and commanded him to let me alone. But he did not cease his
entreaties, asserting that he had earned nothing to-day, and begging me
to buy some small trifle from him. Full of impatience to get rid of him I
put my hand in my pocket. With the words: "I have more beautiful
things here," he opened the under drawer of his box and held out to me
a little, round pocket mirror. In it, as he held it up before my face, I
could see the deserted house behind me, the window, and the sweet
face of my vision there.
I bought the little mirror at once, for I saw that it would make it
possible for me to sit comfortably and inconspicuously, and yet watch
the window. The longer I looked at the reflection in the glass, the more
I fell captive to a weird and quite indescribable sensation, which I
might almost call a waking dream. It was as if a lethargy had lamed my
eyes, holding them fastened on the glass beyond my power to loosen
them. Through my mind there rushed the memory of an old nurse's tale
of my earliest childhood. When my nurse was taking me off to bed, and
I showed an inclination to stand peering into the great mirror in my
father's room, she would tell me that when children looked into mirrors
in the night time they would see a strange, hideous face there, and their
eyes would be frozen so that they could not move them again. The
thought struck awe to my soul, but I could not resist a peep at the
mirror, I was so curious to see the strange face. Once I did believe that I

saw two hideous glowing eyes shining out of the mirror. I screamed
and fell down in a swoon.
All these foolish memories of my early childhood came trooping back
to me. My blood ran cold through my veins. I would have thrown the
mirror from me, but I could not. And now at last the beautiful eyes of
the fair vision looked at me, her glance sought mine and shone deep
down into my heart. The terror I had felt left me, giving way to the
pleasurable pain of sweetest longing.
"You have a pretty little mirror there," said a voice beside me. I awoke
from my dream, and was not a little confused when I saw smiling faces
looking at me from either side. Several persons had sat down upon my
bench, and it was quite certain that my staring into the window, and my
probably strange expression, had afforded them great cause for
amusement.
"You have a pretty little mirror there," repeated the man, as I did not
answer him. His glance said more, and asked without words the reason
of my staring so oddly into the little glass. He was an elderly man,
neatly dressed, and his voice and eyes were so full of good nature that I
could not refuse him my confidence. I told him that I had been looking
in the mirror at the picture of a beautiful maiden who was sitting