Distressed at appearing to drive up like the lady of the house, her
Serene Highness insisted on stopping at the iron gates of the stately
approach. There she alighted, and waited to make the best setting to
rights she could of the heiress's wind-tossed hat and cloak, and
would have put her into the carriage, but that no power could
persuade her to mount that triumphal car, and all that could be
obtained was that she should walk in the forefront of the procession
with the Colonel.
There was nobody to receive them but Richards, for the servants had
been paid off, and only a keeper and his wife were living in the
kitchen in charge. There was a fire in the library, where the
Colonel had business to transact with Richards, while the ladies and
children proceeded with their explorations. It was rather awful at
first in the twilight gloom of the great hall, with a painted
mythological ceiling, and cold white pavement, varied by long
perspective lines of black lozenges, on which every footfall echoed.
The first door that they opened led into a vast and dreary dining-
room, with a carpet, forming a crimson roll at one end, and long
ranks of faded leathern chairs sitting in each other's laps. At one
end hung a huge picture by Snyders, of a bear hugging one dog in his
forepaws and tearing open the ribs of another with his hind ones.
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