The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 69: what you’re looking at

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

50 REYNOLDS’ WORKS the thought of the sorrows of another sharpened instead of mitigated the recollection of her own. The wind was moan- ing dismally without, and these sounds were by no means calculated to cheer Lady Octavian’s spirits. She remem- bered the circumstances which for two consecutive nights had alarmed her when crossing the passage, and she could not possibly repress the cold shudder of a superstitious awe. Nearly half an hour had elapsed since Zoe sought her chamber, and she was still seated at her toilet-table without commencing the slightest preparation for retiring to rest. She was falling into a deeper and deeper reverie, in which all that concerned herself, all that concerned Clarine, as well as the legend attached to the chateau, were blended, yet in no confused and incomprehensible jumble. Presently the idea sradually began to steal into Lady Octavian’s mind that strange sounds were being wafted to her ear, — sounds that were distinct from the dull, dismal moaning of the wind, — sounds which no current of air in its gush through the pas- sage could possibly create. A feeling of terror crept over Lady Octavian; she listened with suspended breath. The sounds were like the continuous moaning of a human voice, — now swelling into a louder strain of agony, then sinking into the lowest and most plaintive wail. What could it be? She thought of Clarine. But no— impossible. The two chambers were separated by the old chapel, or oratory, and no notes of sorrow sounding in Clarine’s room could be‘heard by Zoe in her own. Then, what was it? She was now so excited by alarm that her feelings grew almost desperate; she could not endure this horrible state of suspense. Starting up from her seat, Zoe seized the taper and was about to open the door in the hasty violence of her excited feelings, when she suddenly recollected that 1t would not be so well to alarm others who were in the house. She was naturally courageous, and therefore considerate. She opened the door with the utmost gentleness, and looked forth into the passage. It was natural that her glances should be tremblingly and shudderingly cast in that direction where she had twice seen, or at least fancied she had seen the figure that had so much alarmed her, but now she beheld nothing. She advanced, treading noiselessly, and stopping at every instant to listen. She could now distinguish more distinctly than at first those sounds which had brought her forth from CORNICIIOOKS (E(0)