I sat at the breakfast table gazing vacantly around me, my mind
was in a state of inexpressible misery; there was a whirl in my brain,
probably like that which people feel who are rapidly going mad; this
increased to such a degree that I felt giddiness coming upon me. To
abate this feeling I no longer permitted my eyes to wander about, but
fixed them upon an object on the table, and continued gazing at it for
several minutes without knowing what it was; at length, the misery in my
head was somewhat stilled, my lips moved, and I heard myself saying,
'What odd marks!' I had fastened my eyes on the side of a teapot, and by
keeping them fixed upon it, had become aware of a fact that had escaped
my notice before--namely, that there were marks upon it. I kept my eyes
fixed upon them, and repeated at intervals, 'What strange marks!'--for I
thought that looking upon the marks tended to abate the whirl in my head:
I kept tracing the marks one after the other, and I observed that though
they all bore a general resemblance to each other, they were all to a
certain extent different. The smallest portion possible of curious
interest had been awakened within me, and, at last, I asked myself,
within my own mind, 'What motive could induce people to put such odd
marks on their crockery? they were not pictures, they were not letters;
what motive could people have for putting them there?' At last I removed
my eyes from the teapot, and thought for a few moments about the marks;
presently, however, I felt the whirl returning; the marks became almost
effaced from my mind, and I was beginning to revert to my miserable
ruminations, when suddenly methought I heard a voice say, 'The marks! the
marks! cling to the marks! or . . .' So I fixed my eyes again upon the
marks, inspecting them more attentively, if possible, than I had done
before, and, at last, I came to the conclusion that they were not
capricious or fanciful marks, but were arranged systematically; when I
had gazed at them for a considerable time I turned the teapot round, and
on the other side I observed marks of a similar kind, which I soon
discovered were identical with the ones I had been observing. All the
marks were something alike, but all somewhat different, and on comparing
them with each other, I was struck with the frequent occurrence of a mark
crossing an upright line, or projecting from it, now on the right, now on
the left side; and I said to myself, 'Why does this m