The Craze of Christina — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

6 The Craze of Christina. way as it were betwixt heaven and earth— hung two huge giass luster chandeliers whose cold icy fingers clanked faintly against one another at the unaccustomed reverberation of human footsteps over the long-untrodden parquet floor; whilst, to complete the picture of desolation, a couple of mice shot suddenly from beneath a ponderous settee—amongst whose stuffings and springs they were engaged in ministering to the needs of a promising young family—and scam- pering swiftly down the long room, with an eerie rustle of tiny claws upon the carpetless boards, disappeared again under the gloom ofa sombre ebony cabinet in the far distance. Clifford shivered. Three months ago he had been only a poor devil of a struggling journalist, rising early and toiling late, grinding out endless wretched little articles for penny weekly papers far on into the night—articles that were sometimes accepted and sometimes rejected, so that he had had ever a pleasing uncertainty in his mind as to where his next day’s dinner was to come from, and whether or no he would in any case have pence enough left in his pocket to wash down a 5 meager fare with a glass of beer. ce To-day he is master of Esselton Hall, with a rent roll of £8,000 a year; and he has youth Comichooks.co