Annette, suddenly, 'I heard it again.' 'Hush!' said
Emily, trembling. They listened and continued to sit
quite still. Emily heard a slow knocking against the
wall. It came repeatedly. Annette then screamed loudly,
and the chamber door slowly opened--It was Caterina,
come to tell Annette that her lady wanted her."

It is seldom that the rude awakening comes thus swiftly. More
often we are left wondering uneasily and fearfully for a
prolonged stretch of time. The extreme limit of human endurance
is reached in the episode of the Black Veil. Early in the second
volume, Emily, for whom the concealed picture had a fatal
fascination, determined to gaze upon it.

"Emily passed on with faltering steps and, having
paused a moment at the door before she attempted to
open it, she then hastily entered the chamber and went
towards the picture, which appeared to be enclosed in a
frame of uncommon size, that hung in a dark part of the
room. She paused again and then, with a timid hand,
lifted the veil, but instantly let it fall--perceiving
that, what it had concealed was no picture and, before
she could leave the chamber, she dropped senseless on
the floor."

In time Emily recovers, but the horror of the Black Veil preys on
her mind until, near the close of the third volume, Mrs.
Radcliffe mercifully consents to tell us not only what Emily
thought that she beheld, but what was actually there.