Roanoke of Roanoke Hall: A Romance — page 182: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

176 Roanoke of Roanoke Hall. passed almost unnoticed, were singularly obtrusive: the creaking and straining of the ancient woodwork, the squeaks and scufiles of the mice behind the wainscot, the scratch- ing and tapping of the boughs without the casements positively jarred upon my ears like cannon-firing, and added each moment to the ever-increasing grim and uncanny sensations which weighed upon me like a presentiment of some imminent, unknown evil. I became aware by degrees of a feeling which culminated in an assurance that some- body was standing just outside thedoor. For a long time I refused to give way to it, and endeavored to laugh at it as a ridiculous delusion, but it declined to be shaken off ; and finally, with something of the pitying scorn for my weaker side, which experience feels for the groundless terrors of a child, I rose, and walking to the door, flung it wide. It opened into what had once been the banqueting hall, but which was now a win- dowless and, in places, roofless ruin. ‘The moon shone dimly, obscured by drifting cloud- wrack, but the faint light which streamed in through the apertures above was sufficient comichbooks.com 2