These
dozen years, however, had brought him down in his doings.
The dinners had gradually dwindled away altogether, and he had had all the
large tablecloths and napkins rough dried and locked away against he got
married; an event that he seemed more anxious to provide for the more
unlikely it became. He had also abdicated the main body of the mansion, and
taken up his quarters in what used to be the steward's room; into which he
could creep quietly by a side door opening from the outer entrance, and so
save frequent exposure to the cold and damp of the large cathedral-like
hall beyond. Through the steward's room was what used to be the muniment
room, which he converted into a bedroom for himself; and a little farther
along the passage was another small chamber, made out of what used to be
the plate-room, whereof Jack, or whoever was in office, had the possession.
All three rooms were furnished in the roughest, coarsest, homeliest
way--his lordship wishing to keep all the good furniture against he got
married. The sitting-room, or parlour as his lordship called it, had an old
grey drugget for a carpet, an old round black mahogany table on castors,
that the last steward had ejected as too bad for him, four semi-circular
wooden-bottomed walnut smoking-chairs; an old spindle-shanked sideboard,
with very little middle, over which swung a few bookshelves, with the
termination of their green strings surmounted by a couple of foxes'
brushes.
Pages:
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319