In this manner I fancied I could distinguish the precise moment
when he fairly disengaged the lid--also, that I could determine
when he removed it altogether, and when he deposited it upon the
lower berth in his room; this latter point I knew, for example, by
certain slight taps which the lid made in striking against the
wooden edges of the berth, as he endeavored to lay it down VERY
gently--there being no room for it on the floor. After this there
was a dead stillness, and I heard nothing more, upon either
occasion, until nearly daybreak; unless, perhaps, I may mention a
low sobbing, or murmuring sound, so very much suppressed as to be
nearly inaudible--if, indeed, the whole of this latter noise were
not rather produced by my own imagination. I say it seemed to
RESEMBLE sobbing or sighing--but, of course, it could not have been
either. I rather think it was a ringing in my own ears. Mr.
Wyatt, no doubt, according to custom, was merely giving the rein to
one of his hobbies--indulging in one of his fits of artistic
enthusiasm. He had opened his oblong box, in order to feast his
eyes on the pictorial treasure within.
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