Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/440

 in adapting to common use the mirror that had so bewildered me, when one morning, as I was about to make use of it at my toilet, the glass appeared to me to be tarnished; I breathed upon it and then wiped it, when I tried it again—I shudder still at the remembrance of it! I saw in the place of my own face that of the mysterious unknown of the deserted house. Her eyes were moistened with tears, and fixed upon me with a more harrowing expression than at first.

The sensation I then experienced was so violent that every day after I did nothing but pass and repass before the deserted house. The image of the marvellous young girl had taken possession of all my thoughts; I no longer lived but for the phantom, and I began to feel that physical sensations were establishing themselves between this being and myself, of an unknown nature. I fell gradually into a state of languor which was undermining my life; it was a mixture of pain and pleasure which exhausted me without allowing me to oppose this supernatural influence. Fearing that I should become mad, and having hardly strength enough to drag myself along, I went with great exertion to the house of a physician, celebrated for his knowledge of the treatment for the prevention of mental maladies; I related to him all that had happened to me since a certain time, and I begged him not to abandon me to a state of mind worse than death.

"Tranquillize yourself," said the doctor; "your mind is disordered, but as you know the cause of the trouble that occasions your suffering, it is already in good train for early restoration. Give me in the first place your mirror; go back to your home; undertake some labor that will absorb all your attention, and, after having courageously labored, fatigue yourself by a long walk; then in the evening, see your friends and enjoy yourself with them. Add to this prescription a nourishing diet, and drink generous wines. Your illness proceeds solely from a fixed idea; let us succeed in driving it away, and you will be radically cured."

I hesitated about separating myself from the mirror. The doctor took it; breathed upon it, wiped it and presented it to me, saying,—"Do you see anything now?"

"I see my own features, nothing more," answered I.

"That is well," said the doctor; "now commence yourself the same experiment."

A cry escaped from my lips, and I became very pale. "It is she! it is she!" exclaimed I. The doctor took back the mirror:

"As for myself," said he, "I see nothing of the kind,