Year: 1861

|
fine rain descended quite straight, without
a breath of air, to drive it one way nor
the other, the silence was complete and
distressing. I gave loud shout, ard be-
gan undoing the harness while my sum-
mons was taking effect. e..


The first person whom the sound of my
voice seemed to have reached was small
and precocious boy, who opened door in
the back of the house, and descended the
flight of steps which led to it, approached
to aid me in my task. I was just undoing
the final buckle on my side Of the horse,
when, happening to turn round, discov-
cred standing close beside ME, a person
age who had approached so quietly that it
would have been confusing thing to find
him so near even if there had been nothing
in his appearance which was calculated to
startle one He was the most ill-looking
man, Gentlemen, that it was ever my for
tune to behold. Nearer fifty than any
other age I could give him, his dry spare
nature had kept him as light and active as
a restless boy. An absence of flesh, how
ever, was not the only want l felt to exist
in the personal appearance of the landlord
of the Tete Noire. There was much
more serious defect in him than this. A
want of any hint of mercy, or conscience,
or any accessible approach to the better
side (if be had better side) af the man S
nature When first Looked at his eyes,
as he stood behind me in the open court,
and as they rapidly glanced over the come
ly points of my horse, and thence to the
packages inside my carriage, and the port
manteau strapped on in frontof tat that
time the color of his ewes appeared to NE
to be of an almost orange tinge; but when
minute atterward, we stood together in
the dark stable, noted that kind of blue
phosphorescence cleaned upon their sur
face, vailing their real hue, and impart-
ing to them tigerish lustre. The mo-
ment when l remarked this, by-the-by,
was when the organs [ have been describ-
ing were fixed upon the very large gold
ring which | had not ceased to wear when
[ adopted my adventurous life, and which
you may here see upon my finger now
There were two other things about this
man that struck me. These were, bald
red projecting lump of flesh at the back of
his head, and deep scar, which scrap
of frouzy whlsker on his cheek had wholly
declined to conceal.


A nasty day for journey of pleasure,
said the landlord, looking at me with
satircal smile.


Perhaps it is not journey of pleasure,
I answered.


We have few such travellers on the road
now said the evil faced man, The rail
roads make the country deLert, and the
roads are as wild as they were three hun
dred years ago


They are well enough, ! answered care
lessly, for those who are obliged to travel
by them. Nobody else, should think,
would be likely to make use of them.


Will you come into the house said the
landlord, abruptly, looking me full in the
| face.


[ never felt stronger repugnance than
entertained towards tie idea Of entering
! this mans doors. Yet what other course
was open to me? My mare was already
half through the first enstalment of oats,
so there was no more excuse for remaining
in the stable. To take a walk in the
drenchlng rain was out of the question,
and to remain sitting in my caleche would
have been worse indication of suspicion
and mstrust. Besides, | had had nothing
since the mornings coffee, and [ wanted
something to eat and drink. There was
nothing to be done, then, but to accept my
Unlocking friends offer He I'D the way
up the fight Of steps which gave access to
the interior Of the building.


The room in which found myself on
passing through the door at the top of
these steps was one of those rooms which
an excess of light not only fails to enliven,
but seems even to invest with an addition
al degree of gloom. There is sometimes
this character about light, and I have seen
before now work-house ward or barren
schoolhouse, which have owed a good share
of their melancholy to an immoderate a.
mount of gray daylight. This room, then.
into which was shown, was one of those
which on wet day, seemed several de-
grees lighter than the open air Of course
it could not be lighter than the thing that
lit it, but it seemed So 1t also appeared
larger than the whole out door world; and
this, certainly, could not be, either, but
still it seemed so. Vast as it was, there
appeared through two glass doors in one
end of the room another apartment ofsim-
liar dimensions. 1t was not square room
nor an oblong room, but was smaller at
one end than at the other; phenomenon
which, as you have very likely observed,
Gentlemen, has always an unpleasant eff
feet. The billiard table, which stood in
the middle of the apartment, though real
ly of the usual size, looked like quite a
trifing piece of furniture and as to the
other tables, which were planted sparingly
here and there for purpose of refreshment,
they were qrite lost in the immensity of
space about them. A cupboard, a rack of
billiard cues, marking board, and print
of the murder of The Archbishop of Paris in
black Frame alone broke the uniformity
of the wall. The ceiling, as far as any one
could judge of that altitude, appeared to
be traversed by al enormous beam with
rings fastened into it adapted for suicidal
purposes, and splashed with the whitewash
with which the ceiling itself anu walls had
/ jast been decorated. Even my little ter
rier, whom | had been obliged to take up