me. In short, I ruined myself completely; and but for the legacy that came
to me afterwards, together with the good jobs I have had, my situation
would have been extremely critical and painful.

"So I was going home, I say, at so late an hour that night, numb with the
cold, hungry, ashamed, and disgusted as you can imagine, thinking about my
sick old father more than about myself. I should have to write to him
for money, and this would astonish as much as it would grieve him, since
he thought me in very easy circumstances. Just before reaching my street,
where it crosses Peligros Street, as I was walking in front of a
newly-built house, I perceived something in its doorway. It was a tall,
large woman, standing stiff and motionless, as if made of wood. She seemed
to be about sixty years old. Her wild and malignant eyes, unshaded by
eyelashes, were fixed on mine like two daggers. Her toothless mouth made a
horrible grimace at me, meant to be a smile.

"The very terror or delirium of fear which instantly overcame me gave me
somehow a most acute perception, so that I could distinguish at a glance,
in the two seconds it took me to pass by that repugnant vision, the
slightest details of her face and dress. Let me see if I can put together
my impressions in the way and form in which I received them, as they were
engraved ineffaceably on my brain in the light of the street-lamp which
shone luridly over that ghastly scene. But I am exciting myself too much,
though there is reason enough for it, as you will see further on. Don't be
concerned, however, for the state of my mind. I am not yet crazy!

"'The first thing which struck me in that WOMAN, as I will call her, was
her extreme height and the breadth of her bony shoulders. Then, the
roundness and fixity of her dry, owl-eyes, the enormous size of her
protruding nose, and the great dark cavern of her mouth. Finally, her