With some difficulty I readjusted myself in bed. It was now early
morning, and the first rays of the sun were beginning to penetrate
the white curtains of a window on my left, which probably looked
into the garden, as I caught a glimpse or two of the leaves of
trees through a small uncovered part at the side. For some time I
felt uneasy and anxious, my spirits being in a strange fluttering
state. At last my eyes fell upon a small row of tea-cups seemingly
of china, which stood on a mantelpiece exactly fronting the bottom
of the bed. The sight of these objects, I know not why, soothed
and pacified me; I kept my eyes fixed upon them, as I lay on my
back on the bed, with my head upon the pillow, till at last I fell
into a calm and refreshing sleep.
CHAPTER XXXII
The Morning after a Fall--The Teapot--Unpretending Hospitality--The
Chinese Student.
It might be about eight o'clock in the morning when I was awakened
by the entrance of the old man. "How have you rested?" said he,
coming up to the bedside, and looking me in the face. "Well," said
I, "and I feel much better, but I am still very sore." I surveyed
him now for the first time with attention. He was dressed in a
sober-coloured suit, and was apparently between sixty and seventy.
In stature he was rather above the middle height, but with a slight
stoop; his features were placid, and expressive of much
benevolence, but, as it appeared to me, with rather a melancholy
cast--as I gazed upon them, I felt ashamed that I should ever have
conceived in my brain a vision like that of the preceding night, in
which he appeared in so disadvantageous a light.
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