But not through me--I lay weak and helpless--and my tears ran again and yet again as I felt myself growing hourly weaker.
I remember what a bright fine day it was, with the grand open country all smiles beneath a clear, almost frosty sky, once when I got up on tip-toe and peeped out.

A keen wind whistled about the cottage; I felt it on my feet as I stood; but never have I known a more perfect and invigorating autumn day.

And there I must lie, with the manhood ebbing Out of me, the manhood that I needed so for the night! I crept back into bed.

I swore that I would sleep.

Yet there I lay, listening sometimes to that vile woman's tread below; sometimes to mysterious whispers, between whom I neither knew nor cared; anon to my watch ticking by my side, to the heart beating in my body, hour after hour--hour after hour.