Some chairs, and a dismal old black cabinet, completed the furniture
of this apartment: it wanted but a ghost to render its gloom
complete.
Mrs. Hayes sat up in the bed sternly regarding her husband. There
is, be sure, a strong magnetic influence in wakeful eyes so
examining a sleeping person (do not you, as a boy, remember waking
of bright summer mornings and finding your mother looking over you?
had not the gaze of her tender eyes stolen into your senses long
before you woke, and cast over your slumbering spirit a sweet spell
of peace, and love, and fresh springing joy?) Some such influence
had Catherine's looks upon her husband: for, as he slept under
them, the man began to writhe about uneasily, and to burrow his head
in the pillow, and to utter quick, strange moans and cries, such as
have often jarred one's ear while watching at the bed of the
feverish sleeper. It was just upon six, and presently the clock
began to utter those dismal grinding sounds, which issue from clocks
at such periods, and which sound like the death-rattle of the
departing hour. Then the bell struck the knell of it; and with this
Mr. Hayes awoke, and looked up, and saw Catherine gazing at him.
Their eyes met for an instant, and Catherine turned away, burning
red, and looking as if she had been caught in the commission of a
crime.
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