The Argosy — page 279: what you’re looking at

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

256 The Story of Charles Strange. ings, confused her. She made the acquaintance of the steward, Mr. Drewitt, an elderly gentleman who went about in a plum-coloured suit and a large cambric frill to his shirt. One autumn morning when Blanche had traversed the long corridor, beyond the rooms which she and Lord Level occupied, she turned into another at right angles with it, and came to a door that was partly open. Passing through it, she found herself in a narrow passage that she had not before seen. Deborah, the good-natured housemaid, suddenly came out of one of the rooms opening from it, carrying a brush and dust- pan. Deborah was the only servant kept in the house, so far as Lady Level saw, apart from the cook, who was fat and experienced. ‘What a curious old house!” exclaimed Lady Level. ‘‘ Nothing but dark passages that turn and wind about until you don’t know where you are.” “Tt is that, my lady,” answered Deborah. ‘‘ In the late lord’s time the servants took to calling it the maze, it puzzled them so. ‘The name got abroad, and some people call it the maze to this day.” ‘“T don’t think I have been in this passage before. Does anyone live or sleep here?” added Lady Level, looking at the household articles Deborah carried. It was a dark, narrow passage, closed in by a door at each end. The door at the upper end was of oak; heavy, and studded with nails. Four rooms opened from the passage, two on each side. ‘All these rooms are occupied by the master and missis,” said Deborah, alluding to the steward and his sister. ‘‘ This is Mrs. Edwards’s chamber, my lady,” pointing to the one she had just quitted. ‘‘ That beyond it is Mr. Drewitt’s; the opposite room is their sitting-room, and the one beside it is not used.” ‘“Where does that heavy door lead to?” continued Lady Level. “Tt leads into the East Wing, my lady,” replied Deborah. ‘I have never entered that wing all the two years I’ve lived here,” con- tinued the gossiping girl. ‘‘I am not allowed to do so. The door is kept locked; as well as the door answering to it in the passage below.” ‘** Does no one ever go into it?” “Why, yes, my lady; Mr. Drewitt does, and spends a good part of his time there. He has a business-room there, in which he keeps his books and papers relating to the estate. Mrs. Edwards is in there too with him most days. And my lord goes in when he is down here.” “Then no one really inhabits that wing ? ” “Oh, yes, my lady, John Snow and his wife live in it; he’s the head gardener. A many years he has been in the family ; and one of the last things the late lord did before he died was to give him that wing to live in. An easy life Snow has of it now; working or not, just as he pleases. When there’s any unusual work to be done, our gardener on this side is had in to help with it.” Lady Level did not feel much interested in the wing, or in Snow CONMICLIOO KS. COR