Page:The works of the late Edgar Allan Poe volumes 1-2.djvu/414

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
THE TELL-TALE HEART.
387

mighty God!—no, no! They heard!—they suspected!—they knew!—they were making a mockery of my horror!—this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die!—and now—again!—hark! louder! louder! louder! louder!

"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed!—tear up the planks!—here, here!—it is the beating of his hideous heart!"