The Craze of Christina — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

14 The Craze of Christina. It was now three whole months since the funeral, and Clifford had settled himself down at Hsselton, and he would have been very glad to have been allowed to go on quietly from day to day without any trouble. He had retired as usual to-day to smoke his pipe after breakfast in the only comfortable and habitable sitting- room in the house, his late uncle’s study; but when on this particular morning he was pro- ceeding to carry out his modest and inoffensive programme of enjoyment, Docker had intruded on his solitude with a suggestion that it was his duty to be escorted over the whole house, as it was high time to consider the subject of the re- pairs and renovations that must now be imme- diately commenced, in accordance with the late Mr. Greville’s directions. “The three months is now up,’ said Docker ominously. | Clifford groaned inwardly, but having no decent excuse to offer he submitted to what was apparently inevitable, and Docker solemnly jingling a huge bunch of keys, led the way with impressive gravity through the long dis- mal passages and staircases into the different apartments of the house, into many of which he had never yet penetrated. Esselton Hall was a huge square white block, Gomichbooks: cc