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������Ӣ����ƪС�f������������Thiscircumstance�� however�� only endeared it to my wife�� who�� as I have already said��possessed�� in a high degree�� that humanity of feeling which had once been mydistinguishing trait�� and the source of many of my simplest and purest pleasures.����With my aversion20 to this cat�� however�� its partiality for myself seemed to increase.It followed my footsteps with a pertinacity21 which it would be difficult to make the readercomprehend. Whenever I sat�� it would crouch beneath my chair�� or spring upon myknees�� covering me with its loathsome caresses. If I arose to walk it would get betweenmy feet and thus nearly throw me down�� or�� fastening its long and sharp claws in my����dress�� clamber�� in this manner�� to my breast. At such times�� although I longed to destroyit with a blow�� I was yet withheld from so doing�� partly it at by a memory of my formercrime�� but chiefly-let me confess it at once-by absolute dread of the beast.����This dread was not exactly a dread of physical evil-and yet I should be at a loss howotherwise to define it. I am almost ashamed to own-yes�� even in this felon's cell�� I amalmost ashamed to own-that the terror and horror with which the animal inspired me��had been heightened by one of the merest chimaeras22 it would be possible to conceive. Mywife had called my attention�� more than once�� to the character of the mark of white hair��of which I have spoken�� and which constituted the sole visible difference between thestrange beast and the one I had destroyed. The reader will remember that this mark��although large�� had been originally very indefinite�� but�� by slow degrees-degrees nearlyimperceptible�� and which for a long time my Reason struggled to reject as fanciful-ithad�� at length�� assumed a rigorous distinctness of outline. It was now the representation of an object that I shudder to name-and for tlus�� above all�� I loathed�� and dreaded�� andwould have rid myself of the monster had I dared-it was now�� I say�� the image of ahideous-of a ghastly thing-of the GALLOWS! -oh�� mournful and terrible engine ofHorror and of Crime-of Agony and of Death!����And now was I indeed wretched beyond the wretchedness of mere Humanity. And a brute beast-whose fellow I had contemptuously destroyed-a brute beast to work out for me-for me a man�� fashioned in the image of the High God-so much of insufferable wo!����Alas! neither by day nor by night knew I the blessing of Rest any more ! During the former the creature left me no moment alone�� and�� in the latter�� I started�� hourly�� from dreamsof unutterable fear�� to find the hot breath of the thing upon my face�� and its vast weight-an incamate Night-Mare that I had no power to shake off-incumbent eternally upon my heart!����Beneath the pressure of torments such as these�� the feeble remnant of the good within me succumbed. Evil thoughts became my sole intimates-the darkest and most evil of thoughts. The moodiness of my usual temper increased to hatred of all things and of all mankind�� while�� from the sudden�� frequent�� and ungovernable outbursts of a fury to which I now blindly abandoned myself�� my uncomplaining wife�� alas! was the most usual and the most patient of sufferers.����One day she accompanied me�� upon some household errand�� into the cellar of the old building which our poverty compelled us to inhabit. The cat followed me down the steep stairs�� and�� nearly throwing me headlong�� exasperated me to madness. Uplifting an axe��and forgetting�� in my wrath�� the childish dread which had hitherto stayed my hand�� I aimed a blow at the animal which�� of course�� would have proved instantly fatal had it descended as I wished. But this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded�� by the interference�� into a rage more than demoniacal25 �� I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot�� without a groan.����This hideous murder accomplished�� I set myself forthwith�� and with entire deliberation�� to the task of concealing the body. I knew that I could not remove it from the house�� either by day or by night�� without the risk of being observed by the neighbors.����Many projects entered my mind. At one period I thought of cutting the corpse into minute fragments�� and destroying them by fire. At another�� I resolved to dig a grave for it in the floor of the cellar. Again�� I deliberated about casting it in the well in the yard-about����packing it in a box�� as if merchandize�� with the usual arrangements�� and so getting a porter to take it from the house. Finally I hit upon what I considered a far better expedient than either of these. I determined to wall it up in the cellar-as the monks of the middle ages are recorded to have walled up their victims.����For a purpose such as this the cellar was well adapted. Its walls were loosely����constructed�� and had lately been plastered throughout with a rough plaster�� which the dampness of the atmosphere had prevented from hardening. Moreover�� in one of the walls was a projection�� caused by a false chimney�� or fireplace�� that had been filled up�� and made to resemble the rest of the cellar. I made no doubt that I could readily displace the at this point�� insert the corpse�� and wall the whole up as before�� so that no eye could detect anything suspicious.��������