While the objects around me -- while the carvings of the ceilings , the sombre tapestries of the walls , the ebon blackness of the floors , and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which rattledrattleas I strodestride, were but matters to which , or to such as which , I had been accustomed from my infancy -- while I hesitatedhesitatenot to acknowledge how familiar was all this -- I still wonderedwonderto find how unfamiliar were the fancies which ordinary images were stirringstirup .
The captain was on the point of making an angry reply , but , thinkingthinkbetter of it , turnedturnon his heel and black and scowling , strodestrideaft .
Diligence and attention soon gave him the knack of it , and he strodestridedown the street with his mouth full of harmony and his soul full of gratitude .