The Haunted Hotel | Page 6

if you can, why, when I rose
and met that woman's eyes looking at me, I turned cold from head to
foot, and shuddered, and shivered, and knew what a deadly panic of
fear was, for the first time in my life.'
The Doctor began to feel interested at last.
'Was there anything remarkable in the lady's personal appearance?' he
asked.
'Nothing whatever!' was the vehement reply. 'Here is the true
description of her:--The ordinary English lady; the clear cold blue eyes,
the fine rosy complexion, the inanimately polite manner, the large
good-humoured mouth, the too plump cheeks and chin: these, and
nothing more.'
'Was there anything in her expression, when you first looked at her, that
took you by surprise?'
'There was natural curiosity to see the woman who had been preferred

to her; and perhaps some astonishment also, not to see a more engaging
and more beautiful person; both those feelings restrained within the
limits of good breeding, and both not lasting for more than a few
moments--so far as I could see. I say, "so far," because the horrible
agitation that she communicated to me disturbed my judgment. If I
could have got to the door, I would have run out of the room, she
frightened me so! I was not even able to stand up-- I sank back in my
chair; I stared horror-struck at the calm blue eyes that were only
looking at me with a gentle surprise. To say they affected me like the
eyes of a serpent is to say nothing. I felt her soul in them, looking into
mine--looking, if such a thing can be, unconsciously to her own mortal
self. I tell you my impression, in all its horror and in all its folly! That
woman is destined (without knowing it herself) to be the evil genius of
my life. Her innocent eyes saw hidden capabilities of wickedness in me
that I was not aware of myself, until I felt them stirring under her look.
If I commit faults in my life to come--if I am even guilty of crimes--
she will bring the retribution, without (as I firmly believe) any
conscious exercise of her own will. In one indescribable moment I felt
all this--and I suppose my face showed it. The good artless creature was
inspired by a sort of gentle alarm for me. "I am afraid the heat of the
room is too much for you; will you try my smelling bottle?" I heard her
say those kind words; and I remember nothing else--I fainted. When I
recovered my senses, the company had all gone; only the lady of the
house was with me. For the moment I could say nothing to her; the
dreadful impression that I have tried to describe to you came back to
me with the coming back of my life. As soon I could speak, I implored
her to tell me the whole truth about the woman whom I had supplanted.
You see, I had a faint hope that her good character might not really be
deserved, that her noble letter was a skilful piece of hypocrisy--in short,
that she secretly hated me, and was cunning enough to hide it. No! the
lady had been her friend from her girlhood, was as familiar with her as
if they had been sisters--knew her positively to be as good, as innocent,
as incapable of hating anybody, as the greatest saint that ever lived. My
one last hope, that I had only felt an ordinary forewarning of danger in
the presence of an ordinary enemy, was a hope destroyed for ever.
There was one more effort I could make, and I made it. I went next to
the man whom I am to marry. I implored him to release me from my

promise. He refused. I declared I would break my engagement. He
showed me letters from his sisters, letters from his brothers, and his
dear friends-- all entreating him to think again before he made me his
wife; all repeating reports of me in Paris, Vienna, and London, which
are so many vile lies. "If you refuse to marry me," he said, "you admit
that these reports are true--you admit that you are afraid to face society
in the character of my wife." What could I answer? There was no
contradicting him--he was plainly right: if I persisted in my refusal, the
utter destruction of my reputation would be the result. I consented to let
the wedding take place as we had arranged it-- and left him. The night
has passed. I am here, with my fixed conviction-- that innocent woman
is ordained to have a fatal influence over my life. I am here with my
one question to put, to the one man who can answer it.