Curious, if True: Strange TalesGaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn
General
Curious, if True: Strange Tales
Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn
Curiosities and wonders -- Fiction; Horror tales; Short stories
When we drove up to the great front entrance, and went into the hall, I
thought we would be lost--it was so large, and vast and grand. There
was a chandelier all of bronze, hung down from the middle of the
ceiling; and I had never seen one before, and looked at it all in
amaze. Then, at one end of the hall, was a great fire-place, as large
as the sides of the houses in my country, with massy andirons and dogs
to hold the wood; and by it were heavy, old-fashioned sofas. At the
opposite end of the hall, to the left as you went in--on the western
side--was an organ built into the wall, and so large that it filled up
the best part of that end. Beyond it, on the same side, was a door; and
opposite, on each side of the fire-place, were also doors leading to
the east front; but those I never went through as long as I stayed in
the house, so I can't tell you what lay beyond.
The afternoon was closing in, and the hall, which had no fire lighted
in it, looked dark and gloomy, but we did not stay there a moment. The
old servant, who had opened the door for us, bowed to Mr. Henry, and
took us in through the door at the further side of the great organ, and
led us through several smaller halls and passages into the west
drawing-room, where he said that Miss Furnivall was sitting. Poor
little Miss Rosamond held very tight to me, as if she were scared and
lost in that great place; and as for myself, I was not much better. The
west drawing-room was very cheerful-looking, with a warm fire in it,
and plenty of good, comfortable furniture about. Miss Furnivall was an
old lady not far from eighty, I should think, but I do not know. She
was thin and tall, and had a face as full of fine wrinkles as if they
had been drawn all over it with a needle's point. Her eyes were very
watchful, to make up, I suppose, for her being so deaf as to be obliged
to use a trumpet. Sitting with her, working at the same great piece of
tapestry, was Mrs. Stark, her maid and companion, and almost as old as
she was. She had lived with Miss Furnivall ever since they both were
young, and now she seemed more like a friend than a servant; she looked
so cold, and grey, and stony, as if she had never loved or cared for
any one; and I don't suppose she did care for any one, except her
mistress; and, owing to the great deafness of the latter, Mrs. Stark
treated her very much as if she were a child. Mr. Henry gave some
message from my lord, and then he bowed good-by to us all,--taking no
notice of my sweet little Miss Rosamond's outstretched hand--and left
us standing there, being looked at by the two old ladies through their
spectacles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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