Primera Parte De The Oval Portrait

We saw the dark shape of the roof above the forest. It was not far away, but travelling was difficult
in that wild part of the mountains. We did not arrive until night was falling.
It was a sad andstrangely beautiful house, many hundreds of years old. Pedro, my servant, broke
in through a small door at the back and carried me carefully inside. I was so badly hurt that I would die
if westayed out all night.
'People were living here until a very short time ago,' Pedro said. 'They left in a hurry.'
He carried me through several tall, richly decorated rooms to a smaller room in a cornerof the
great house. He helped me to lie down on the bed. There were a lot of very fine modern pictures in this
room. I looked at them for a while in the dying light. They were everywhere on thewalls, all round me.
After dark, I could not sleep because of the pain. Also, I was so weak now that I was afraid that I
was dying. So I asked Pedro to light the lamp beside the bed.
I began to look atthe pictures on the walls, and as I did so I read a small book. I found this book on
the bed next to me. It described all the pictures in the room, one by one, and told their stories.
I looked andread for a long time, and the hours passed quickly. Midnight came and went. My eyes
became more and more tired, and soon I found it hard to read the words on the page. So I reached out —
this waspainful and difficult — and moved the lamp closer. Now, the lamp's light fell in a different part
of the room, a part that was in deep shadow until then. I saw more pictures, and among them there was aportrait of a young woman. As soon as I saw it, I closed my eyes.
Keeping my eyes closed, I tried to understand why. Why did I suddenly close my eyes like that?
Then I realized. I did it to givemyself time. I needed time to think. Was I sure that I really saw what I
thought I saw? Was I dreaming? No, I was suddenly very awake.
I waited until I was calm again; then I opened my eyes and...