Fiction > Book editions > London, 1885 - Dynamiter

THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION. 97
I'apidly reviewed the empty clianil)ers. Cats, servant,
old lady, the very marks of habitation, like writing on a
slate, had been in these few hours obliterated. He
wandered from floor to floor, and found the house of
great extent ; the kitchen ottices commodious and well
appointed ; the rooms many and large ; and the drawing-
I'oom, in particular, an apartment of princely size and
tasteful decoration. Although the day without was
warm, genial and sunny, with a rufiling wind from the
quarter of Torquay, a chill, as it were, of suspended
animation, inhabited the house. Dust and shadows met
the eye ; and but for the ominous procession of the
echoes, and the rumour of the wind among the garden
trees, the ear of the young man was stretched in vain.
Behind the dining-room, that j)leasant library, referred
to by the old lady in her tale, looked upon the flat roofs
and netted cupolas of the kitchen quarters ; and on a
second visit, this room appeared to greet him with a
smiling countenance. He might as well, he thought,
avoid the expense of lodging : the library fitted with
an iron bedstead which he had remarked, in one of the
upper chambers, would serve his purpose for the night ;
while in the dining-room, which was large, airy, and
lightsome, looking on the square and garden, he might
very agreeably pass his days, cook his meals, and study
to bring himself to some proficiency in that art of paint-
ing which he had recently determined to adopt. It did
not take him long to make the change : he had soon
returned to the mansion with his modest kit ; and the
cabman who brought him was readily induced, by the
young man's pleasant manner and a small gratuity, to
assist him in the installation of the iron bed. By six in
the evening, when Somerset went forth to dine, he was
able to look back upon the mansion with a sense of pride
and property. Four-square it stood, of an imposing
frontage, and flanked on either side hj family hatch-
ments. His eye, from where he stood whistling in the
key, with his back to the garden railings, reposed on
every feature of reality ; and yet his own possession
seemed as flimsy as a dream.
H