Here there was an ungovernable peal of laughter.
I could not contain myself. I started up from my seat - looked round on
the company with fiery indignation - thrust both my hands into my
pockets, and strode up to one of the windows, as though I would have
walked through it. I stopped short; looked out upon the landscape
without distinguishing a feature of it; and felt my gorge rising almost
to suffocation.
Mine host saw it was time to interfere. He had maintained an air of
Gravity through the whole of the scene, and now stepped forth as if to
shelter me from the overwhelming merriment of my companions.
"Gentlemen," said he, "I dislike to spoil sport, but you have had your
laugh, and the joke of the haunted chamber has been enjoyed. I must now
take the part of my guest. I must not only vindicate him from your
pleasantries, but I must reconcile him to himself, for I suspect he is
a little out of humor with his own feelings; and above all, I must
crave his pardon for having made him the subject of a kind of
experiment.
"Yes, gentlemen, there is something strange and peculiar in the chamber
to which our friend was shown last night. There is a picture which
possesses a singular and mysterious influence; and with which there is
connected a very curious story. It is a picture to which I attach a
value from a variety of circumstances; and though I have often been
tempted to destroy it from the odd and uncomfortable sensations it
produces in every one that beholds it; yet I have never been able to
prevail upon myself to make the sacrifice.
