Roanoke of Roanoke Hall: A Romance — page 196: what you’re looking at

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

190 Roanoke of Roanoke Hall. This latest caprice was altogether beyond my understanding. I could not imagine why I should be ordered to destroy what it had ‘taken so much trouble to obtain. As I sat watching the beautiful cover warp- ing and twisting in the heat, I saw a raised panel, which formed part of the ornament, forced from its position by the increasing cur- vature. Regardless of blistered hands I snatched the smouldering object from the flames, and hastily beat out the last sparks. The excep- tional thickness of the binding was explained when I found that it had been constructed as the hidden receptacle of several closely writ- ten manuscripts. Undeterred by the difficulty arising from . the fineness of the writing, and the close com- pression of the lines and words, I devoured the contents with feverish eagerness, uttering at times exclamations of surprise or delight, and . leaping up at the end with a feeling of exulta- tion akin to stupefaction. This indeed was a trenchant blade to cut the Gordian knot of my affairs, Tho stain on my birth was washed away, my poverty in part (@) comicbhooks.com adil