that I have fallen into the hands of some one who
has an interest in my disappearance.

"There is some one in the next room with the old woman. I hear a man's
voice and they are quarrelling. They are talking of me. He wants her to
do something which she will not do. He commands her to go away, but she
refuses. What does he mean to do? I do not want her to leave me alone. I
do not hate her any more; I know that she is not bad. When I listened
I heard her speaking of me as of an insane person. She really believes
that I am ill. When the man went away he must have been angry. He
stamped down the stairs until the steps creaked under his tread: I know
it is a wooden staircase therefore.

"I am safe from him to-day, but I am really ill of fright. Am I really
insane? There is one thing that I have forgotten to write down. When
I first came to myself I found a bit of paper beside me on which was
written, 'Beware of calling in help from outside. One scream will mean
death to you.' It was written in French like the letter. Why? Was it
because the old woman could not read it? She knew of the piece of
paper, for she took it away from me. It frightens me that I should have
forgotten to write this down. Am I really ill? If I am not yet ill, this
terrible solitude will make me so.

"What a gloomy room this is, this prison of mine. And such a strange
ugly wall-paper. I tore off a tiny bit of it and hid it in this little
book. Some one may find it some day and may discover from it this place
where I am suffering, and where I shall die, perhaps. There cannot be
many who would buy such a pattern, and it must be possible to find the
factory where it was made. And I will also write down here what I can
see from my barred window. Far down below me there is a rusty tin roof,
it looks like as if it might belong to a sort of shed. In front and to
the right there are windowless walls; to the left, at a little distance,
I can see a slender church spire, greenish in colour, probably covered
with copper, and before the church there are two poplar trees of
different heights.

"Another day has passed, a day of torturing fear! Am I really insane? I
know that I see queer things. This morning I looked towards the window
and I saw a parrot sitting there! I saw it quite plainly. It ruffled
up its red and green feathers and stared at me. I stared back at it and
suddenly it was gone. I shivered. Finally I pulled myself together and
went to the window. T