ABSTRACT
Besieged by these reflections, and exhausted with the successive efforts I had made in sustaining my artificial character, I came home one day to my lodging and to Catherine in a state of the most fearful desperation. I had passed through a series of agonies, each one more insupportable than the agony that had gone before; but this last finished the business. I shut the door of our apartment, and turned the key in the lock. I disentangled myself with impatience from the different articles of my disguise. This was quickly effected. I seated myself in my chair, and made Catherine sit in front of me. The poor girl saw that a / more than human thought was working within me; and she trembled. She was accustomed to witness the horrors of my spirit amidst the ceaseless trials that beset me; but, after all she had seen, her soul confessed something more terrible in the present situation.
