A short horror story I read about a room when I was in Year 9 but I can't remember

I remember we read a short story as a class in English in Year 9. The story was something like the main character goes to this house/hotel and he was assigned to this room that everyone is afraid to go to. He walked through a corridor and it's really sinister. He opened the room and he tried to lit candles but failed the first two times. He saw something but I didn't remember what it was; it wasn't written very clearly in the story. After he saw 'the thing' (I guess), he passed out. When he opened his eyes again, people asked him what it was that he saw, he said that what was in the room was the thing that every man had feared.
There may have been parts of the story where I remembered wrong, it was a very long time ago.
But I remembered there were languages like 'said I' so it's not a modern piece of literature.
If anyone knows the short story I'm talking about or has any ideas, please suggest them! I'd really appreciated!

It might be The Red Room by H. G. Wells - I remember studying it in Year 9 English