But in the old woman's case that film did not move and reveal the pupils … from which I inferred that she was blind.
"Dost thou want alms?" I repeated my question.—"Why art thou following me?"—But, as before, the old woman did not answer, and merely shrank back almost imperceptibly.
I turned from her and went my way.
And lo! again I hear behind me those same light, measured footsteps which seem to be creeping stealthily up.
"There's that woman again!" I said to myself.—"Why has she attached herself to me?"—But at this point I mentally added: "Probably, owing to her blindness, she has lost her way, and now she is guiding herself by the sound of my steps, in order to come out, in company with me, at some inhabited place. Yes, yes; that is it."
But a strange uneasiness gradually gained possession of my thoughts: it began to seem to me as though that old woman were not only following me, but were guiding me,—that she was thrusting me now to the right, now to the left, and that I was involuntarily obeying her.
Still I continue to walk on … but now, in front of me, directly in my road, something looms up black and expands … some sort of pit…. "The grave!" flashes through my mind.—"That is where she is driving me!"
I wheel abruptly round. Again the old woman is before me … but she sees! She gazes at me with large, evil eyes which bode me ill … the eyes of a bird of prey…. I bend down to her face, to her eyes…. Again there is the same film, the same blind, dull visage as before….
"Akh!" I think … "this old woman is my Fate—that Fate which no man can escape!
"I cannot get away! I cannot get away!—What madness…. I must make an effort." And I dart to one side, in a different direction.