very pretty — every one noticed her, young men paid her attentions, — but there was among them one ... an officer. He followed her about incessantly, and wherever she was, she always saw his cruel black eyes. He was not introduced to her, and never once spoke to her — only perpetually stared at her — so insolently and strangely. All the pleasures of the capital were poisoned by his presence. She began persuading her husband to hasten their departure — and they had already made all the preparations for the journey. One evening her husband went out to a club — he had been invited by the officers of the same regiment as that officer — to play cards. . . . She was for the very first time left alone. Her husband did not return for a long while. She dismissed her maid, and went to bed. . . . And suddenly she felt overcome by terror, so that she was quite cold and shivering. She fancied she heard a slight sound on the other side of the w^ll, like a dog scratching, and she began watching the wall. In the corner a lamp was burning; the room was all hung with tapestry. . . . Suddenly something stirred there, rose, opened. . . . And straight out of the wall a black, long figure came, that awful man with the cruel eyes! She tried to scream, but could not. She was utterly numb with terror. He went up to her
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