Curious, if True: Strange TalesGaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn
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Curious, if True: Strange Tales
Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn
Curiosities and wonders -- Fiction; Horror tales; Short stories
I was right glad when they rung for the old footman who had shown us in
at first, and told him to take us to our rooms. So we went out of that
great drawing-room and into another sitting-room, and out of that, and
then up a great flight of stairs, and along a broad gallery--which was
something like a library, having books all down one side, and windows
and writing-tables all down the other--till we came to our rooms, which
I was not sorry to hear were just over the kitchens; for I began to
think I should be lost in that wilderness of a house. There was an old
nursery, that had been used for all the little lords and ladies long
ago, with a pleasant fire burning in the grate, and the kettle boiling
on the hob, and tea-things spread out on the table; and out of that
room was the night-nursery, with a little crib for Miss Rosamond close
to my bed. And old James called up Dorothy, his wife, to bid us
welcome; and both he and she were so hospitable and kind, that
by-and-by Miss Rosamond and me felt quite at home; and by the time tea
was over, she was sitting on Dorothy's knee, and chattering away as
fast as her little tongue could go. I soon found out that Dorothy was
from Westmoreland, and that bound her and me together, as it were; and
I would never wish to meet with kinder people than were old James and
his wife. James had lived pretty nearly all his life in my lord's
family, and thought there was no one so grand as they. He even looked
down a little on his wife; because, till he had married her, she had
never lived in any but a farmer's household. But he was very fond of
her, as well he might be. They had one servant under them, to do all
the rough work. Agnes they called her; and she and me, and James and
Dorothy, with Miss Furnivall and Mrs. Stark, made up the family; always
remembering my sweet little Miss Rosamond! I used to wonder what they
had done before she came, they thought so much of her now. Kitchen and
drawing-room, it was all the same. The hard, sad Miss Furnivall, and
the cold Mrs. Stark, looked pleased when she came fluttering in like a
bird, playing and pranking hither and thither, with a continual murmur,
and pretty prattle of gladness. I am sure, they were sorry many a time
when she flitted away into the kitchen, though they were too proud to
ask her to stay with them, and were a little surprised at her taste;
though to be sure, as Mrs. Stark said, it was not to be wondered at,
remembering what stock her father had come of. The great, old rambling
house was a famous place for little Miss Rosamond. She made expeditions
all over it, with me at her heels; all, except the east wing, which was
never opened, and whither we never thought of going. But in the western
and northern part was many a pleasant room; full of things that were
curiosities to us, though they might not have been to people who had
seen more. The windows were darkened by the sweeping boughs of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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