The Irish standard., 1915-05-08
By Edgar Allan Poe

dark and intricate passages In my
progress to the studio of his master.
On a staircase met the physi-
clan Of the family. His countenance,
I thought, wore mingled expression
Of low cunning and perplexity. He &C.
costed me with trepidation and passed
on. The valet now threw open door
and ushered me into the presence of
his master.
The room in which I found myself
was very large and lofty. The win
dows were long, narrow and pointed
and at so vast distance from the
black oaken floor as to be altogether
inaccessible from within. Feeble
CLEANS Of encrimsoned light made
their way through the trellised panes
and served to render sufficiently dis
tinct the more prominent objects
around. I felt that breathed an at
mosphere Of sorrow. An air of stern,
deep and irredeemable gloom hung over
and pervaded all.
Upon my entrance Usher arose from
sofa on which he had been lying at
full length and greeted me with
vivacious warmth which had much in
it, at first thought, Of an overdone
cordiality-of the constrained effort of
the ennuye man Of the world. A
glance, however, at his countenance
convinced me of his perfect sincerity.
We sat down, and for some moments,
while he spoke not, I gazed upon him
with feeling half Of pity, half of
awe. Surely man had never before
so terribly altered in so brief a period
as had Roderick Usher. It was with
difficulty that could bring myself to
admit the identity of the one being
before me with the companion Of my
early boyhood. Yet the character of
his face had been at all times remarka-
BILE. A cadaver0usness Of complexion;
an eye large, liquid and luminous be-
yond comparison; lips somewhat thin
and very pallid, but Of surprisingly
beautiful curve; nose Of delicate
Hebrew model, but with breadth of
nostril unusual in similar formations;
a finely nodded chin, speaking in its
want of prominence, of a want Of
moral energy; hair Of more than
weblike softness and tenuity-these
features, with an inordinate expan-
sion above the regions Of the temple,
made up altogether a countenance not
easily to be forgotten. The now ghast-
~ pallor Of the skin and the now
miraculous luster Of the eye, above all
things, startled and even awed me.
The silken hair, too, had been suffered
to grow all unheeded, and as. in its
wild gossamer texture, it doated rather
than fell about the face could not,
even with effort, connect it's Arahesque
expression with any idea Of simple hu-
manity.
In the manner Of my friend was
at once struck with an incoherence-
an Inconsistency, and soon found this
to arise from q series Of feeble and
futile struggles to overcome an habit
ual trepidancy-an excessive nervous
agitation.
His action was alternately vivacious
and sullen. His voice varied rapidly
from q tremulous indecision (when the
animal spirits seemed utterly in abey-
ance) to that species Of energetic con-
cision-that abrupt, weighty, unhurried
and hollow sounding enunciation: that
leaden, self balanced and perfectly
nodulated cultural utterance. which
may be observed in the lost drunkard
or the irreclaimable eater Of opium,
during the periods of his most intense
excitement.
It was thus that he spoke of the OBJ
ject of my visit. of his earnest desire
to see me and of the solace he expect
ed me to afford him. He entered at
some length into what he conceived to
be the nature Of his malady. 1t dis
played itself in a host of unnatura!
sensations. He suffered much from n
morbid acuteness of the senses: the
most insipid food was alone endurable:
he could wear only garments of GER
tain texture: the odors of all flowers
were oppressive: his eyes were tortur-
ed by even faint light. and there
were but peculiar sounds and these
from stringed instruments which did
not inspire him with horror.
To an anomalous species Of terror
found him bounden slave. Il shall
perish" said he. II must perish in
this deplorable folly. Thus, thus. and
not otherwise, shall I he lost. dread
the events of the future, not in them.
selves, but in their results. shudder
at the thought of any, even the most
trivial incident which may operate
upon this intolerable agitation of soul.
I have indeed no adherence of danger
except in its absolute effect-in terror.
In this unnerved, in this pitiable condi-
ton, feel that the period will sooner
or later arrive when I must abandon
life and reason together in some strug-
gle with the grim phantasR-fear."
learned. moreover. at intervals
and through broken and eQuivocal
hints, that he was enchanted by certain
superstitious Impressions in regard to
the dwelling which he tenanted and
whence, for many years. he had never
ventured forth. :.
He admitted. however, although
with hesitation, that much Of the pc
culiar gloom which thus afflicted him