The Canterville Ghost

At half-past ten he heard the family going to bed. For some time he was disturbed by wild shrieks of laughter from the twins, who, with the light-hearted gaiety of schoolboys, were evidently amusing themselves before they retired to rest, but at a quarter past eleven all was still, and, as midnight sounded, he sallied forth.

The owl beat against the window panes, the raven croaked from the old yew-tree, and the wind wandered moaning round the house like a lost soul; but the Otis family slept unconscious of their doom, and high above the rain and storm he could hear the steady snoring of the Ambassador of the United States. He stepped stealthily out of the wainscoting, with an evil smile on his cruel, wrinkled mouth, and the moon hid her face in a cloud as he stole past the great oriel window, where his own arms and those of his murdered wife were blazoned in azure and gold.

On and on he glided, like an evil shadow, the very darkness seeming to loathe him as he passed. Once he thought he heard something call, and stopped; but it was only the baying of a dog from the Red Farm, and he went on, muttering strange sixteenth-century curses, and ever and anon brandishing the rusty dagger in the midnight air. Finally he reached the corner of the passage that led to the luckless Washington's room. For a moment he paused there, the wind blowing his long grey locks about his head, and twisting into grotesque and fantastic folds the nameless horror of the dead man's shroud.

Vocabulary:

Shriek: Between a scream and a shout.
Gaiety: Light-hearted happiness.
Retired to rest: Went to bed.
Sallied forth: Went to do something important of difficult.
Raven: A large black bird which is associated with the supernatural.
Wainscoting: Wooden panels which protect the bottom part of a wall.
Oriel window: A window which is out of line with the wall.
Arms: Here it means the patterns which represent the family.
Loathe: Hate so much it makes you sick.
Baying: Barking and howling together.
Anon: Again.
Brandish: Wave like a sword.
Locks: Bunches of hair.
Grotesque: Horrible and unnatural.
Shroud: Cloth that is wrapped around a dead body.