Page:The Black Cat v06no11 (1901-08).djvu/53

Rh was his own face that met his gaze, and he was heartily ashamed of the sigh of relief he gave as he saw it.

He returned to his chair and picked up the mirror. Again he glanced into it. This time it was his own square, clean-shaven face which looked back at him.

"Well, I am a skittish fool," said he, and turned the mirror over. The Cupid favored him with the smile which was its perpetual attribute, and at that Caverley laughed easily and put the mirror in a drawer.

Some evenings later he again looked at the mirror. As lie turned it about he was aware that the same face was looking back at him—the face with the scars and the eyes which seemed to be half reproachful, half pleading.

"Good Lord!" said he, and laid the mirror down rather suddenly. Then, thoroughly at odds with his childishness, he picked it up again. This time, as he peered into it, he saw the reflection of his own face.

"This," he announced to the Cupid, "is a clear case of indigestion. Take Thingummy's pills, you know." Yet he was aware, with a strange feeling of awe, that he regarded the mirror in a new and not altogether pleasing light.

"You're not quite so much the article I wanted as I took you to be," he observed, as he banged the drawer shut.

But some sort of morbid fascination about the mirror caused him to take it often from the drawer. He came to look upon it with loathing, and each time that uncouth face peered back at him he felt creepy sensations, of alternate warmth and chill, yet so strong was the spell it cast over his better senses that he was unable to keep his mind from it.

When ner birthday came, Caverley took her the hour-glass and made no mention of the mirror. Indeed, he spoke of it to no one, for he felt an intense disgust at his own actions regarding it. Yet every night he brought it out and turned it about until the face he had come to hate stared back at him. Then with a curse lie would throw it into the drawer and pace the room until he was tired out.

In time he discovered that the mirror must be held in a certain position for the face to appear. Otherwise it gave normal reflec-