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Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan, 1814-1873

"Uncle Silas A Tale of Bartram-Haugh"

The door-frames, like the window-frames, were richly carved;
the fireplace was in the same massive style, and the mantelpiece projected
with a mass of very rich carving. On the whole I was surprised. I had never
slept in so noble a room before.
The furniture, I must confess, was by no means on a par with the
architectural pretensions of the apartment. A French bed, a piece of carpet
about three yards square, a small table, two chairs, a toilet table--no
wardrobe--no chest of drawers. The furniture painted white, and of the
light and diminutive kind, was particularly ill adapted to the scale and
style of the apartment, one end only of which it occupied, and that but
sparsely, leaving the rest of the chamber in the nakedness of a stately
desolation. My cousin Milly ran away to report progress to 'the Governor,'
as she termed Uncle Silas.
'Well, Miss Maud, I never did expect to see the like o' that!' exclaimed
honest Mary Quince, 'Did you ever see such a young lady? She's no more like
one o' the family than I am. Law bless us! and what's she dressed like?
Well, well, well!' And Mary, with a rueful shake of her head, clicked her
tongue pathetically to the back of her teeth, while I could not forbear
laughing.


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