The prospect was too tiresome and
disagreeable to detain Lord Glenvarloch at his station, so, turning
from the window, he examined with more interest the furniture and
appearance of the apartment which he tenanted.
Much of it had been in its time rich and curious--there was a huge
four-post bed, with as much carved oak about it as would have made the
head of a man-of-war, and tapestry hangings ample enough to have been
her sails. There was a huge mirror with a massy frame of gilt brass-
work, which was of Venetian manufacture, and must have been worth a
considerable sum before it received the tremendous crack, which,
traversing it from one corner to the other, bore the same proportion
to the surface that the Nile bears to the map of Egypt. The chairs
were of different forms and shapes, some had been carved, some gilded,
some covered with damasked leather, some with embroidered work, but
all were damaged and worm-eaten. There was a picture of Susanna and
the Elders over the chimney-piece, which might have been accounted a
choice piece, had not the rats made free with the chaste fair one's
nose, and with the beard of one of her reverend admirers.
In a word, all that Lord Glenvarloch saw, seemed to have been articles
carried off by appraisement or distress, or bought as pennyworths at
some obscure broker's, and huddled together in the apartment, as in a
sale-room, without regard to taste or congruity.
Pages:
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437