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Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan, 1814-1873

"Uncle Silas A Tale of Bartram-Haugh"

So I will get up now, and dress.'
'I think you will do well to get all the repose you can,' answered Madame;
'but as you please,' she added, observing that I was getting up.
So soon as I had got some of my things on, I said--
'Is there a pretty view from the window?'
'No,' said Madame.
I looked out and saw a dreary quadrangle of cut stone, in one side of which
my window was placed. As I looked a dream rose up before me.
'This hotel,' I said, in a puzzled way. '_Is_ it a hotel? Why this is just
like--it _is_ the inner court of Bartram-Haugh!'
Madame clapped her large hands together, made a fantastic _chasse_ on the
floor, burst into a great nasal laugh like the scream of a parrot, and then
said--
'Well, dearest Maud, is not clever trick?'
I was so utterly confounded that I could only stare about me in stupid
silence, a spectacle which renewed Madame's peals of laughter.
'We are at Bartram-Haugh!' I repeated, in utter consternation. 'How was
this done?'
I had no reply but shrieks of laughter, and one of those Walpurgis dances
in which she excelled.
'It is a mistake--is it? _What_ is it?'
'All a mistake, of course.


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