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.

WILLIAM WILSON

member it had no trees, nor benches, nor anything
similar within it. Of course it was in the rear of the
house. In front lay a small parterre, planted with
box and other shrubs; but through this sacred division we passed only upon rare occasions indeedsuch as a first advent to school or final departure
thence, or perhaps when, a parent or friend having
called for us, we joyfully took our way home for the
Christmas or Midsummer holidays.
But the house! —how quaint an old building was
this! - to me how veritably a palace of enchantment!
There was really no end to its windings - to its incomprehensible subdivisions. It was difficult, at any given
time, to say with certainty upon which of its two stories
one happened to be. From each room to every other
there were sure to be found three or four steps either
in ascent or descent. Then the lateral branches were
innumerable, inconceivable, and so returning in upon
themselves that our most exact ideas in regard to the
whole mansion were not very far different from those
with which we pondered upon infinity. During the five
years of my residence here I was never able to ascertain, with precision, in what remote locality lay the
little sleeping apartment assigned to myself and some
eighteen or twenty other scholars.
The school-room was the largest in the house - I
could not help thinking, in the world. It was very
long, narrow, and dismally low, with pointed Gothic
windows and a ceiling of oak. In a remote and terror-inspiring angle was a square enclosure of eight or
ten feet, comprising the sanctum, "during hours," of
our principal, the Reverend Dr. Bransby. It was a
solid structure, with massy door, sooner than open
which in the absence of the " Dominie " we would all
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