Roanoke of Roanoke Hall: A Romance — page 184: what you’re looking at

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

178 Roanoke of Roanoke Halt. strong. I tried toread in vain. I determined I would not reopen the door. I laughed at myself, girded at myself, and lastly, as if drawn by a stronger will than my own, I rushed to the door, and dashing it open cried, wildly : “ Man or devil, come in !” I felt that something passed me, and went in ; and yet I did not exactly feel it: I was rather, in some incomprehensible fashion, conscious of it. I felt nothing ; I heard noth- ing ; I saw nothing; and yet I knew that something had passed me, and gone in. I shut the door and gazed eagerly round © the room. I could not tell afterwards what I expected to see. I was not even sure that I expected to see anything ; but if there was a half-formed anticipation in my mind, it was disappointed. The room was apparently ag empty as before. Concluding that it was merely a delusion of my over-excited brain, I returned to my chair and once more opened the book, of which, with the best intentions, I had scarcely read half a page, and of that even I retained the vaguest recollection. The previous dis- comichbooks.com