True! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?Narrator
The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them.Narrator
Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth.Narrator
I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad?Narrator
Hearken! and observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell you the whole story.Narrator
It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night.Narrator
I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult.Narrator
I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it.Narrator
Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees --very gradually --I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.Narrator
You should have seen how wisely I proceeded --with what caution --with what foresight --with what dissimulation I went to work!Narrator
All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim.Narrator