One after one
Thenceforward , all through the days and nights which followed , one of these men stood ever at my window to see I worked with speed , worked on the locket and not upon my chains . Count Raoul came many times as the work progressed , but the guards were alway at too great a distance to tell in what quaint form my beaten gold was fashioned . Many , many lockets I made of cunning workmanship and design , of curious chasings and most marvelous wrought intertwinings , yet none suited my lord . One after one they returned to the melting pot and my labors re-commenced . During the long months I was thus engaged , I saw the Count often , nay , more than daily , for his whole feverish life seemed in-woven with the yellow and white metals I was busy interlacing and rounding and polishing up . At times an abject fear sat upon his countenance , and he mumbled of strange sights he saw , of communings with the Prince of Darkness , of specters gaunt and hideous that glided through the deserted court-yard , and stood beside his chair even in the noisy banquet chamber . For that the Count was mad I could not doubt .