Page 86 (1/2)

There was in all this, however, no solution to the sound of dancing; and

noare that the influence on , for I eary and faint, but I hoarded up the

expectation of entering, as of a great coh the hall My s, and therewith sowithin the curtain I had last

night lifted When the thought of doing so occurred to me first, I

happened to be within a few yards of it I beca had been for some time init, entered the black hall

Everything was still as death I should have concluded that the

sound must have proceeded from some other more distant quarter,

which conclusion its faintness would, in ordinary circumstances, have

necessitated fro about the statues

that caused me still to remain in doubt As I said, each stood perfectly

still upon its black pedestal: but there was about every one a certain

air, not of motion, but as if it had just ceased froether of the marbly stillness of thousands of

years

It was as if the peculiar atmosphere of each had yet a kind