could be perceived, followed by gliding shaddos revealed by the
occasional flicker of the waning fire.

Illusions of this nature served to keep the blood at feverheat during
the hours of darkness. Night after night the pistol was placed beneath
the pillow in readiness for these ghostly intruders. A few days,
however, brought other apprehensions worse than those of thieves and
burglars. The uncontrollable exasperation of the temper obliged me at
length to draw the charge from the pistol, through fear of yielding to
some sudden impulse of despair. I had also put out of reach my razors,
a hammer, and whatever else might serve as an impromptu means of
violence. I remember the grim satisfaction with which I looked upon
the brass ornaments of the bedroom fire-place, and reflected that, if
worse came to worst, I was not wholly without a resource with which to
end my sufferings. For nearly a fortnight previously I had refrained
from shaving, dreading I scarce knew what.

The day succeeding Christmas I rode to the city and walked the length
of innumerable by-streets as my weakness would allow. When too
exhausted to walk further, and looking for some place of rest, I
observed a barber's sign suspended over a basement room. Fortunately
the barber stood in the door-way and helped me to descend the
half-dozen stone steps which led to his shop. I told the man to cut my
hair, shave me, and shampoo my head. As he began his manipulations it
seemed as though every separate hair was endowed with an intense
vitality. It was impossible to refrain from mingled screams and groans
as I repeatedly caught his arm and obliged him to desist. Luckily the
barher was a man of sense, and by his extreme gentleness contrived in
the course of an hour to calm down my excitement.