ple 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 mark sometimes cross the upright line, and sometimes
project?" and the more I thought on the matter the less did I feel of the
misery in my head.

'The things were at length removed, and I sat, as I had for some time
past been wont to sit after my meals, silent and motionless; but in the
present instance my mind was not entirely abandoned to the one mournful
idea which had so long distressed it. It was, to a certain extent,
occupied with the marks on the teapot; it is true that the mournful idea
strove hard with the marks on the teapot for the mastery in my mind, and
at last the painful idea drove the marks of the teapot out. They,
however, would occasionally return and flit across my mind for a moment
or two, and their coming was like a momentary relief from intense pain.
I thought once or twice that I would have the teapot placed before me,
that I might examine the marks at leisure, but I considered that it would
be as well to defer the re-examination of the marks till the next
morning. At that time I did not take tea of an evening. By deferring
the examination thus, I had something to look forward to on the next
morning. The day was a melancholy one, but it certainly was more
tolerable to me than any of the others had been