In the manner of my friend I was at once struck with an incoherence- an inconsistency; and I soon found this to arise from a series of feeble and futile struggles to overcome an habitual trepidancy-an excessive nervous agitation. For something of this nature I had indeed been prepared, no less by his letter, than by
reminiscences of certain boyish traits, and by conclusions deduced from his peculiar physical conformation and temperament. His action was alternately vivacious
and sullen. His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision to that species of energetic concision—that abrupt, weighty, unhurried, and hollow-sounding
enunciation--that leaden, self-balanced and perfectly modulated guttural utterance,
Bored
Which portion of this passage indicates that the narrator observed Roderick Usher trying to appear cheerful and friendly, in contrast to his "terribly altered"
appearance?
Usher "had been lying at full length" on a sofa.
Usher welcomed the narrator "with a vivacious warmth."
Usher appeared to the narrator to be making a "constrained effort."
Usher "spoke not" while he and the narrator sat.