I held it fast with my eyes.
The moon drew back: she only possessed and filled it! No; the moon was
too pure: she but shone reflected from the windows; she would not go in!
_I_ would go in! I was Justice! The woman was a thief! She had broken
into the house of life, and was stealing!
"I stood for a moment looking up at her window. There was neither motion
nor sound. Was she gone away, and my brother with her? Could she be in
bed and asleep, after seeing us swept down the river to the Degenfall!
Could he be with her and at rest, believing me dashed to pieces? I must
be resolved! The door was not bolted; I stole up the stair to her
chamber. The door of it was wide open. I entered, and stood. The moon
filled the tiny room with a clear, sharp-edged, pale-yellow light. She
lay asleep, lovely to look at as an angel of God. Her hair, part of it
thrown across the top-rail of the little iron bed, streamed out on each
side over the pillow, and in the midst of it lay her face, a radiant isle
in a dark sea. I stood and gazed. Fascinated by her beauty? God forbid! I
was fascinated by the awful incongruity between that face, pure as the
moonlight, and the charnel-house that lay unseen behind it. She was to
me, henceforth, not a woman, but a live Death. I had no sense of
sacredness, such as always in the chamber even of a little girl. How
should I? It was no chamber; it was a den.
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