It was a hack like any other, only a trifle dirtier, with a greasy line along the top of the drab cushions, as if it had been used for a great many Irish funerals.

It is possible I took a nap; I had been traveling all night, and though I was excited with my errand, I felt the want of sleep.

At all events I woke up suddenly, from a sleep or from a kind of a reverie, with the most extraordinary feeling in the world--a mortal disgust for the thing I was going to do.

It came upon me like THAT!" and he snapped his fingers--"as abruptly as an old wound that begins to ache.

I couldn't tell the meaning of it; I only felt that I loathed the whole business and wanted to wash my hands of it.