Roanoke of Roanoke Hall: A Romance — page 191: what you’re looking at

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

Roanoke of Roanoke Hall. 185 meaning of this mysterious advice, but the only plausible theory I could evolve was that the book was intended for a Bible, and that the good old dame had piously intended to prompt her successors to a life of holiness. It did not altogether explain the rhyme, and, as May had once observed, if that had been her object it had been thwarted by the malice or incapacity of the artist, for her eyes were in no way fixed upon the book, which, from its position, she could not have read if they had been, but were gazing out to the right of the picture in the most worldly fashion. Incomplete, however, as the explanation was, it was the only one, and even if my attention were now requested to the inscription it did not enable me to throw any more light upon its hidden significance. “Well,” I said, speaking aloud rather than addressing the figure, “what is to be done next?” She raised her hand, beckoning, and moved slowly away to the left. It was unmistakable that for some purpose of her own she wished to lead me in that direction. That this guess was right was instantly proved, for my first N comichbooks.com