Terror

Eyes are tired; the lamp burns, and in its circle of light papers and books lie where chance and life have placed them.

Silence sings all around me; my head is bound with a band; outside in the street a few footsteps; a clock strikes the hour.

I gaze, and my eyes close, slowly:

I doze; but the moment before sleep, a voice calls my name in my ear, and the shock jolts my heart: but when I open my eyes, and look, first left, and then right ...

no one is there.