The works of Edgar Allan Poe; newly collected and edited, with a memoir, critical introductions, and notes, by Edmund Clarence Stedman and George Edward Woodberry; the illustrations by Albert Edward Sterner.

TALES OF CONSCIENCE

peculiar mental state, I could frequently read, even
in that brief interval of a glance, the history of long
years.
With my brow to the glass, I was thus occupied in
scrutinizing the mob, when suddenly there came into
view a countenance, (that of a decrepit old man, some
sixty-five or seventy years of age)-a countenance
which at once arrested and absorbed my whole attention, on account of the absolute idiosyncrasy of its
expression. Anything even remotely resembling that
expression I had never seen before. I well remember
that my first thought, upon beholding it, was that Retzch,
had he viewed it, would have greatly preferred it to his
own pictural incarnations of the fiend. As I endeavored, during the brief minute of my original survey, to
form some analysis of the meaning conveyed, there
arose confusedly and paradoxically within my mind
the ideas of vast mental power, of caution, of penuriousness, of avarice, of coolness, of malice, of bloodthirstiness, of triumph, of merriment, of excessive
terror, of intense —of supreme despair. I felt singularly aroused, startled, fascinated. "How wild a
history," I said to myself, "is written within that
bosom!" Then came a craving desire to keep the
man in view - to know more of him. Hurriedly putting on an overcoat, and seizing my hat and cane, I
made my way into the street, and pushed through the
crowd in the direction which I had seen him take; for
he had already disappeared. With some little difficulty I at length came within sight of him, approached, and followed him closely, yet cautiously, so
as not to attract his attention.
I had now a good opportunity of examining his
person. He was short in stature, very thin, and
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