THE MEASURED MOVEMENT OF THE PENDULUM DISTURBED THEM NOT AT ALL As HE NEARLY FAINTED AS HE GAZED . 268 THE TELL--TALE HEART RUE -nervous,- very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am but why WILL you say that I am mad The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad Hearken and ob- serve how healthily -how calmly I can tell you the whole story. It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain but, once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye I yes, it was this One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture, a pale blueeye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold and so by degrees, very gradualIy, I made up my mind to...