Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 284: what you’re looking at

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

JOSEPH WILMOT; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT. me away—so that altogether my eyes rested not on them for more than a few seconds. We re- turned to the servants’ hall, where a couple ot bowls of punch and several bottles of wine, toge- ther with cakes and dried fruits, were placed upon the table. Good humour and harmless mirth pre- | yailed; and I only wished that as much genuine —_——— © ee mS TT ——- = ———__-—_—— -one with you. hilarity was experienced in the drawing-room as that which was then passing around me. CHAPTER LI. THE MARQUIS OF CHILHAM. Ir was verging towards eleven o’clock when one of the footmen, having been absent from the servants’ hall for a few minutes, returned; and bending over my chair, he said to me, “ Your young master has already retired to his chamber. I have conducted him thither; and he bade me in- form you that he did not need your presence any more to-night. So you may remain here and enjoy yourself a little longer.” At the same time a female domestic, who had likewise been absent in answer to a summoning bell, intimated to Helen that she was wanted to assist at Mrs. Rowland’s night-toilet; and she accordingly retired. I was much fatigued with the two days’ travelling; and knowing that I had to be up early, speedily followed Helen’s example by withdrawing from the servants’ hall. “There is a lamp burning on the table in your chamber,” said the domestic who had borne Mr. Stephen’s message to me: “so you need not take Do you think you are able to find your way?” “TI have not the slightest doubt of it,’ I re- sponded: and bidding the servants all good night, I issued forth from their presence, leaving them to finish the punch and the wine, which they appeared perfectly disposed and able to do. I threaded my way along the passage, and turned into the corridor, which was lighted with lamps held in the hands of statues. But it now occurred to me that I had spoken somewhat too quickly and too confidently, when I had declared that I could with such ease find my own chamber. Perhaps too, if the truth must be told, I had taken one more glass of wine than was proper for me: but I had been so pressed by the servants of the Mar- quis that their hospitality had overpowered my abstemious inclinations. Indeed, I was habitually so averse to strong drink, and was accustomed to take it so sparingly, that the most trifling depar- ture from this rule was to meanexcess. Thus my ideas were somewhat confused by what I had par- taken of; and I was actually bewildered by the array of doors on either side of the corridor. “This must be it,’ I at length said to myself; and catching with a sort of desperate resolve at the handle of one of them, I entered. It was dark—but not completely so—within the room: there was the feeblest glimmering of a lamp which stood upon a table. The light how- ever was close upon extinction; and its last dying rays only just served to redeem the place from uiter obscurity. It was much too sickly and faint to throw out any objects into a relief sufficient for 271 the eye to be enabled at once to seize upon them:—it was too feeble likewise to define the dimensions of the apartment, or to show its nature, whether sitting-room or bed-chamber. But I knew that there was a table in the middle of the room where I was to sleep: I had learnt also that a lamp had been left burning on it;—and moreover, methought that through the obscurity I beheld the bed in the spot where it ought to be. Never- theless, there was still in my mind a vague sus- picion that I was in error and that I had found my way into the wrong room. “Tf this be it,’ I said to myself, “the door of Mr. Stephen’s apartment must be in this die rection :”—and thither I accordingly groped my way. My hands encountered a curtain. I drew it aside, now feeling convinced that I was right: for, as the reader will recollect, there was a curtain in the doorway between my ante-chamber and Mr. Stephen’s apartment. I stretched out my hands: one of them encountered the handle of a door— but on turning it, I found that it was fastened. I was about to knock, to inquire whether Mr. Stephen wanted anything—when my other hand encountered window-panes instead of wood-work. Thus groping at the door, I discovered that it was a glass one. Ah! a glass-door, with a curtain over it! what strange idea was it that now entered my head? I turned rapidly round: the lamp was still feebly glimmering upon the table— but the position of the table itself in respect to that of the glass-door strengthened my suspicion, A cold terror crept over me as Lt looked towards the wall on the other side of thetable. <A large square black space seemed to be enclosed in something that dimly and feebly reflected the dying glimmer of the lamp. I drew nearer, and came in contact with the table,—which I thus found to be a large one; for I thought that I should have cleared it while so advancing. table was sufficient to shake the lamp somewhat; and for a moment’it flickered up the least thing more brightly than before. Again were my looks flung shudderingly upon that large black space against the wall; and my eyes literally expanded in terror as I discovered an enormous picture in its massive gilt frame. This frame-work was it that reflected, though so dimly and feebly, the dull misty glimmering of the light. I drew nearer :— again did the lamp flicker up for a moment, but sufficiently to reveal the horrible outlines of that picture’s hideous subject—an enormous snake cir- cling with its huge coils the form of a man on horseback ! > “Good heavens!” I murmured audibly, as a sickening terror seized upon me—for there was something fearful and vaguely ominous in the coincidences and accidental circumstances which had thus brought me once more to a room where upwards of eighteen months back I had passed through so frightful a scene. At the same instant that those words fell from my lips—and while with the flashing of an in- spiration, the mysteries of that eventful scene to which I have just alluded were cleared up in a moment—my ear caught the sound of some one moving close by; and as I quickly glanced in that direction, I distinctly perceived a pair of eyes fixed upon me. Oh, those eyes!—it might have The concussion with the CORNICE LO@ S im (CO)