dian's dwelling, announced that Samuel was awake. Figure to yourself
a tolerably large room, lined from top to bottom with old walnut
wainscoting browned to an almost black, with age. Two half-extinguished
brands are smoking amid the cinders on the hearth. On the stone
mantelpiece, painted to resemble gray granite, stands an old iron
candlestick, furnished with a meagre candle, capped by an extinguisher.
Near it one sees a pair of double-barrelled pistols, and a sharp
cutlass, with a hilt of carved bronze, belonging to the seventeenth
century. Moreover, a heavy rifle rests against one of the chimney jambs.
Four stools, an old oak press, and a square table with twisted legs,
formed the sole furniture of this apartment. Against the wall were
systematically suspended a number of keys of different sizes, the shape
of which bore evidence to their antiquity, whilst to their rings were
affixed divers labels. The back of the old press, which moved by a
secret spring, had been pushed aside, and discovered, built in the wall,
a large and deep iron chest, the lid of which, being open, displayed
the wondrous mechanism of one of those Florentine locks of the sixteenth
century, which, better than any modern invention, set all picklocks
at defiance; and, moreover, according to the notions of that age, are
supplied with a thick lining of asbestos cloth, suspended by gold wire
at a distance from the sides of the chest, for the purpose of rendering
incombustible the articles contained in it. A large cedar-wood box
had been taken from the chest, and placed upon a stool; it contained
numerous papers, carefully arranged and docketed. By the light of a
brass lamp, the old keeper Samuel, was writing in a small register,
whilst Bathsheba, his wife, was dictating to him from an account. Samuel
was about eighty two years old, and, notwithstanding his advanced age, a
mass of gray curling hair covered his head. He was short, thin, nervous,
and the involuntary petulance of his movements proved that years had not
weakened his energy and activity; though, out of doors, where, however,
he made his appearance very seldom, he affected a sort of second
childhood, as had been remarked by Rodin to Father d'Aigrigny. An old
dressing-gown, of maroon-colored camlet, with large sleeves, completely
enveloped the old man, and reached to his feet.

Samuel's features were cast in the pure, Eastern mould of his race. His
complexion was of a dead yellow, his nose aqu