I was alone, entirely alone with that mysterious phantom whom I thought
able to annihilate me with a word. How should I ever get home? Oh, how
anxiously I looked towards that distant Montera street, broad and well
lighted, where there are policemen to be found at all hours! I decided,
finally, to get the better of my weakness; to dissemble and hide that
wretched fear; not to hasten my pace, but to keep on advancing slowly,
even at the cost of years of health or life, and in this way, little by
little, to go on getting nearer to my house, exerting myself to the utmost
not to fall fainting on the ground before I reached it.

"'I was walking along in this way--I must have taken about twenty steps
after leaving behind me the doorway where the woman with the fan was
hidden, when suddenly a horrible idea came to me--horrible, yet very
natural nevertheless--the idea that I would look back to see if my enemy
was following me. One thing or the other I thought, with the rapidity of a
flash of lightning: either my alarm has some foundation or it is madness;
if it has any foundation, this woman will have started after me, will be
overtaking me, and there is no hope for me on earth. But if it is madness,
a mere supposition, a panic fright like any other, I will convince myself
of it in the present instance, and for every case that may occur
hereafter, by seeing that that poor old woman has stayed in that doorway
to protect herself from the cold, or to wait till the door is opened; and
thereupon I can go on to my house in perfect tranquillity, and I shall
have cured myself of a fancy that causes me great mortification.

"'This reasoning gone through with, I made an extraordinary effort and
turned my head. Ah, Gabriel!--Gabriel! how fearful it was! The tall woman
had followed me with silent tread, was right over me, almost touching me
with her fan, almost leaning her head on my shoulder.