dress, like that of a young woman of Avapies--the new little cotton
handkerchief which she wore on her head, tied under her chin, and a
diminutive fan which she carried open in her hand, and with which, in
affected modesty, she was covering the middle of her waist.

"'Nothing could be at the same time more ridiculous and more awful, more
laughable and more taunting, than that little fan in those huge hands. It
seemed like a make-believe sceptre in the hands of such an old, hideous,
and bony giantess! A like effect was produced by the showy percale
handkerchief adorning her face by the side of that cut-water nose, hooked
and masculine; for a moment I was led to believe (or I was very glad to)
that it was a man in disguise.

"'But her cynical glance and harsh smile were of a hag, of a witch, an
enchantress, a Fate, a--I know not what! There was something about her to
justify fully the aversion and fright which I had been caused all my life
long by women walking alone in the streets at night. One would have said
that I had had a presentiment of that encounter from my cradle. One would
have said that I was frightened by it instinctively, as every living being
fears and divines, and scents and recognizes, its natural enemy before
ever being injured by it, before ever having seen it, and solely on
hearing its tread.

"'I did not dash away in a run when I saw my life's sphinx. I restrained
my impulse to do so, less out of shame and manly pride than out of fear
lest my very fright should reveal to her who I was, or should give her
wings to follow me, to overtake me--I do not know what. Panic like that
dreams of dangers which have neither form nor name.

"'My house was at the opposite end of the long and narrow street, in which