Page:Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal, t. II.djvu/186

 terror, of despair—a piercing, shrill cry that rang through the still night air, awakening all the inmates of that quiet house from their peaceful slumbers."

"And you—what did you do?"

"What did I do? I really don't know. I must have said something—I must have done something, but I have not the slightest recollection of what it was. Then I stumbled downstairs in the dark. It was like going down, down into a deep well. I only remember running through the gloomy streets—running like a madman, whither I knew not.

"I felt cursed like Cain, or like the Eternal Wanderer, so I ran on at random.

"I had fled from them, would that I had been able to flee from myself likewise.

"All at once, at the corner of the street, I ran against someone. We both recoiled from each other. I, aghast and terror-stricken; he, simply astonished."

"And whom did you meet?"

"My own image. A man exactly like myself—my Döppelgänger, in fact. He stared at me