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"
Oh
,
’
tis
a
mere
nothing
!
A
snake
!
A
snake
!
The
commonest
thing
in
the
world
.
A
snake
in
the
bosom
—
that
’
s
all
,
"
answered
Roderick
Elliston
.
"
But
how
is
your
own
breast
?
"
continued
he
,
looking
the
sculptor
in
the
eye
with
the
most
acute
and
penetrating
glance
that
it
had
ever
been
his
fortune
to
encounter
.
"
All
pure
and
wholesome
?
No
reptile
there
?
By
my
faith
and
conscience
,
and
by
the
devil
within
me
,
here
is
a
wonder
!
A
man
without
a
serpent
in
his
bosom
!
"
"
Be
calm
,
Elliston
,
"
whispered
George
Herkimer
,
laying
his
hand
upon
the
shoulder
of
the
snake
-
possessed
.
"
I
have
crossed
the
ocean
to
meet
you
.
Listen
!
Let
us
be
private
.
I
bring
a
message
from
Rosina
—
from
your
wife
!
"
"
It
gnaws
me
!
It
gnaws
me
!
"
muttered
Roderick
.
With
this
exclamation
,
the
most
frequent
in
his
mouth
,
the
unfortunate
man
clutched
both
hands
upon
his
breast
as
if
an
intolerable
sting
or
torture
impelled
him
to
rend
it
open
and
let
out
the
living
mischief
,
even
should
it
be
intertwined
with
his
own
life
.
He
then
freed
himself
from
Herkimer
’
s
grasp
by
a
subtle
motion
,
and
,
gliding
through
the
gate
,
took
refuge
in
his
antiquated
family
residence
.
The
sculptor
did
not
pursue
him
.
He
saw
that
no
available
intercourse
could
be
expected
at
such
a
moment
,
and
was
desirous
,
before
another
meeting
,
to
inquire
closely
into
the
nature
of
Roderick
’
s
disease
and
the
circumstances
that
had
reduced
him
to
so
lamentable
a
condition
.
He
succeeded
in
obtaining
the
necessary
information
from
an
eminent
medical
gentleman
.
Shortly
after
Elliston
’
s
separation
from
his
wife
—
now
nearly
four
years
ago
—
his
associates
had
observed
a
singular
gloom
spreading
over
his
daily
life
,
like
those
chill
,
gray
mists
that
sometimes
steal
away
the
sunshine
from
a
summer
’
s
morning
.
The
symptoms
caused
them
endless
perplexity
.
They
knew
not
whether
ill
health
were
robbing
his
spirits
of
elasticity
,
or
whether
a
canker
of
the
mind
was
gradually
eating
,
as
such
cankers
do
,
from
his
moral
system
into
the
physical
frame
,
which
is
but
the
shadow
of
the
former
.
They
looked
for
the
root
of
this
trouble
in
his
shattered
schemes
of
domestic
bliss
,
—
wilfully
shattered
by
himself
,
—
but
could
not
be
satisfied
of
its
existence
there
.
Some
thought
that
their
once
brilliant
friend
was
in
an
incipient
stage
of
insanity
,
of
which
his
passionate
impulses
had
perhaps
been
the
forerunners
;
others
prognosticated
a
general
blight
and
gradual
decline
.
From
Roderick
’
s
own
lips
they
could
learn
nothing
.
More
than
once
,
it
is
true
,
he
had
been
heard
to
say
,
clutching
his
hands
convulsively
upon
his
breast
,
—
"
It
gnaws
me
!
It
gnaws
me
!
"
—
but
,
by
different
auditors
,
a
great
diversity
of
explanation
was
assigned
to
this
ominous
expression
.
What
could
it
be
that
gnawed
the
breast
of
Roderick
Elliston
?
Was
it
sorrow
?
Was
it
merely
the
tooth
of
physical
disease
?
Or
,
in
his
reckless
course
,
often
verging
upon
profligacy
,
if
not
plunging
into
its
depths
,
had
he
been
guilty
of
some
deed
which
made
his
bosom
a
prey
to
the
deadlier
fangs
of
remorse
?
There
was
plausible
ground
for
each
of
these
conjectures
;
but
it
must
not
be
concealed
that
more
than
one
elderly
gentleman
,
the
victim
of
good
cheer
and
slothful
habits
,
magisterially
pronounced
the
secret
of
the
whole
matter
to
be
Dyspepsia
!
Meanwhile
,
Roderick
seemed
aware
how
generally
he
had
become
the
subject
of
curiosity
and
conjecture
,
and
,
with
a
morbid
repugnance
to
such
notice
,
or
to
any
notice
whatsoever
,
estranged
himself
from
all
companionship
.
Not
merely
the
eye
of
man
was
a
horror
to
him
;
not
merely
the
light
of
a
friend
’
s
countenance
;
but
even
the
blessed
sunshine
,
likewise
,
which
in
its
universal
beneficence
typifies
the
radiance
of
the
Creator
’
s
face
,
expressing
his
love
for
all
the
creatures
of
his
hand
.
The
dusky
twilight
was
now
too
transparent
for
Roderick
Elliston
;
the
blackest
midnight
was
his
chosen
hour
to
steal
abroad
;
and
if
ever
he
were
seen
,
it
was
when
the
watchman
’
s
lantern
gleamed
upon
his
figure
,
gliding
along
the
street
,
with
his
hands
clutched
upon
his
bosom
,
still
muttering
,
"
It
gnaws
me
!
It
gnaws
me
!
"
What
could
it
be
that
gnawed
him
?
After
a
time
,
it
became
known
that
Elliston
was
in
the
habit
of
resorting
to
all
the
noted
quacks
that
infested
the
city
,
or
whom
money
would
tempt
to
journey
thither
from
a
distance
.
By
one
of
these
persons
,
in
the
exultation
of
a
supposed
cure
,
it
was
proclaimed
far
and
wide
,
by
dint
of
handbills
and
little
pamphlets
on
dingy
paper
,
that
a
distinguished
gentleman
,
Roderick
Elliston
,
Esq
.
,
had
been
relieved
of
a
SNAKE
in
his
stomach
!
So
here
was
the
monstrous
secret
,
ejected
from
its
lurking
place
into
public
view
,
in
all
its
horrible
deformity
.
The
mystery
was
out
;
but
not
so
the
bosom
serpent
.
He
,
if
it
were
anything
but
a
delusion
,
still
lay
coiled
in
his
living
den
.
The
empiric
’
s
cure
had
been
a
sham
,
the
effect
,
it
was
supposed
,
of
some
stupefying
drug
which
more
nearly
caused
the
death
of
the
patient
than
of
the
odious
reptile
that
possessed
him
.
When
Roderick
Elliston
regained
entire
sensibility
,
it
was
to
find
his
misfortune
the
town
talk
—
the
more
than
nine
days
’
wonder
and
horror
—
while
,
at
his
bosom
,
he
felt
the
sickening
motion
of
a
thing
alive
,
and
the
gnawing
of
that
restless
fang
which
seemed
to
gratify
at
once
a
physical
appetite
and
a
fiendish
spite
.
He
summoned
the
old
black
servant
,
who
had
been
bred
up
in
his
father
’
s
house
,
and
was
a
middle
-
aged
man
while
Roderick
lay
in
his
cradle
.
