Roanoke of Roanoke Hall: A Romance — page 186: what you’re looking at

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

380 Roanoke of Roanoke Hall. CHAPTER XII. HOW MY CRY WAS ANSWERED, AND HOW I LEARNT A SECRET. THE resolution was an excellent one, and I protest I should have stoutly adhered to it had not an unforeseen interruption pre- vented me. How long I had kept my vow I had no means of judging ; but it cannot have been very long before the light began to fail, and in a moment the page was plunged in darkness so profound as to hinder my dis- tinguishing one letter from another. Inwardly cursing the old woman who had replaced Martha for having neglected to replenish the lamp with oil, I raised my eyes, and perceived to my surprise that, though the book I held was in deep shadow, the walls on either hand were as brilliantly illuminated as before. Wondering what the meaning of this pecu- liarity might be, I looked round, for I was comichbooks.com