when being one day alone in my bed-room, I happened to look out from
the window, and to my unutterable horror, I beheld peering through an
opposite casement, my cousin Edward's face. Had I seen the evil one
himself in bodily shape, I could not have experienced a more sickening
revulsion. I was too much appalled to move at once from the window,
but I did so soon enough to avoid his eye. He was looking fixedly down
into the narrow quadrangle upon which the window opened. I shrunk back
unperceived, to pass the rest of the day in terror and despair. I went
to my room early that night, but I was too miserable to sleep.

At about twelve o'clock, feeling very nervous, I determined to call
my cousin Emily, who slept, you will remember, in the next room, which
communicated with mine by a second door. By this private entrance I
found my way into her chamber, and without difficulty persuaded her to
return to my room and sleep with me. We accordingly lay down together,
she undressed, and I with my clothes on, for I was every moment
walking up and down the room, and felt too nervous and miserable to
think of rest or comfort. Emily was soon fast asleep, and I lay awake,
fervently longing for the first pale gleam of morning, and reckoning
every stroke of the old clock with an impatience which made every hour
appear like six.

It must have been about one o'clock when I thought I heard a slight
noise at the partition door between Emily's room and mine, as if
caused by somebody's turning the key in the lock. I held my breath,
and the same sound was repeated at the second door of my room, that
which opened upon the lobby; the sound was here distinctly caused
by the revolution of the bolt in the lock, and it was followed by a
slight pressure upon the door itself, as if to ascertain the security
of the lock. The person, whoever it might be, was probably satisfied,