'What a plague do you want of all that bustle; you'll leave it behind,
lass, the first bush you jump over.'
I was a good deal astounded. I was also very near laughing, for there was
a sort of importance in her plump countenance, and an indescribable
grotesqueness in the fashion of her garments, which heightened the
outlandishness of her talk, in a way which I cannot at all describe.
What palatial wide stairs those were which we ascended, with their
prodigious carved banisters of oak, and each huge pillar on the
landing-place crowned with a shield and carved heraldic supporters; florid
oak panelling covered the walls. But of the house I could form no estimate,
for Uncle Silas's housekeeping did not provide light for hall and passages,
and we were dependent on the glimmer of a single candle; but there would be
quite enough of this kind of exploration in the daylight.
So along dark oak flooring we advanced to my room, and I had now an
opportunity of admiring, at my leisure, the lordly proportions of the
building. Two great windows, with dark and tarnished curtains, rose half as
high again as the windows of Knowl; and yet Knowl, in its own style, is a
fine house.
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