Vashti's Fate — page 248: what you’re looking at

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

‘ REVELATIONS—DESPATR, 243 What, Frank, poor fellow, are you going, too? and Nora? It’s a pitiful sight, my children. Come, Thorpe.” Philip went first, and Vashti moved with languid grace just beside him. They threaded several passages, and came at last to the great ebon-hued door of the Hermitage. A large, strong door, sunk in the wall, and frowning gloomily upon them. Trembling, not so much with age as with sorrow and anxiety, the old man selected a ponderous key from a ring containing several smaller ones, and fitted it in the lock of the great door, but he was unable to turn it. | ‘* Hubert,” he said. The young man stepped forward, the heavy bolt shot. back, and the door swung slowly open on what seemed, at the first glance, a chasm of darkness. But it was only from contrast with the strong light they were leaving. They entered a long, wide hall, leading irregularly acros the building. On either hand as they passed along, they caught glimpses of great, echoing rooms, with ivy-mantled windows, and tattered draperies upon the walls. Pausing before a low, as it seemed, iron door, Hubert, taking the keys from his father’s hand, opened it. They found themselves now in what appeared like an ante-chamber. Beyond was another iron door, larger than the first, and latticed with iron bars in its middle portion. Margery Gresham pressed forward, looked once into the apartment beyond, and fell back with bowed head, mutely motioning the rest to look. It was a large, light apartment into which they looked— a circular room—high, airy, and lighted from above en- tirely. No windows appeared to relieve the monotony of those blank walls. A little at one side of the apartment was seated a man SEOMIG OO cs m (eco)