The lips of the animal opened and pronounced slowly and solemnly the words “Never no more!”
My hair stood on end, and the poker fell from my grasp.
“Horrible being!” I cried;—“fearful and ungrammatical being leave me, and return to darkness and the Stygian shore.”
“Never no more!” said the brute: “I’ve come to stay for ever.”
“Nonsense, monster; you are insane,” I shouted.
“Fact, I assure you,” replied my tormentor;—“they hadn’t got no raven handy, and so they sent me. It’s about the Leonora business.”
“Ah, that name! Tell me, I implore you, tell me—is she a widow yet? May I hope? Shall I again behold her?”
“Never no more!”
This was too much. I ran and threw the door open again—came back—firmly grasped the poker, and——
But the beast had sought refuge under the sofa. Thence it retreated beneath my table, and thence under the arm-chair. Round and round the apartment I chased it vainly. Its demoniac laugh thrilled me with rage and horror.