all men, good or bad, thereupon
took complete possession of you, and you answered this false friend by
saying that you would not return without a pistol. Whereupon he offered
to take you to his house and give you his. You consented, and getting
rid of your servant by sending him to Poughkeepsie with your excuses,
you entered a coach with your friend.

"You say you bought the pistol, and perhaps you did, but, however that
may be, you left his house with it in your pocket and, declining
companionship, walked home, arriving at the Colonnade a little before
midnight.

"Ordinarily you have no difficulty in recognizing your own doorstep.
But, being in a heated frame of mind, you walked faster than usual and
so passed your own house and stopped at that of Mr. Hasbrouck's, one
door beyond. As the entrances of these houses are all alike, there was
but one way by which you could have made yourself sure that you had
reached your own dwelling, and that was by feeling for the doctor's sign
at the side of the door. But you never thought of that. Absorbed in
dreams of vengeance, your sole impulse was to enter by the quickest
means possible. Taking out your night-key, you thrust it into the lock.
It fitted, but it took strength to turn it, so much strength that the
key was twisted and bent by the effort. But this incident, which would
have attracted your attention at another time, was lost upon you at this
moment. An entrance had been effected, and you were in too excited a
frame of mind to notice at what cost, or to detect the small differences
apparent in the atmosphere and furnishings of the two houses--trifles
which would have arrested your attention under other circumstances, and
made you pause before the upper floor had been reached.

"It was while going up the stairs that you took out your pistol, so that
by the time you arrived at the front-room door you held it ready cocked
and drawn in your hand. For, being blind, you feared escape on the part
of your victim, and so waited for nothing but the sound of a man's voice
before firing. When, therefore, the unfortunate Mr. Hasbrouck, roused by
this sudden intrusion, advanced with an exclamation of astonishment, you
pulled the trigger, killing him on the spot. It must have been
immediately upon his fall that you recognized from some word he uttered,
or from some contact you may have had with your surroundings, that you
were in the wrong house and had killed the wrong man; for you