og, ran out from some
half-ruinous outhouses, and took charge of the horses; the hall-door
stood open, and I entered a gloomy and imperfectly-lighted apartment,
and found no one within it. However, I had not long to wait in this
awkward predicament, for before my luggage had been deposited in the
house, indeed before I had well removed my cloak and other muffles,
so as to enable me to look around, a young girl ran lightly into the
hall, and kissing me heartily and somewhat boisterously exclaimed, "My
dear cousin, my dear Margaret--I am so delighted--so out of breath, we
did not expect you till ten o'clock; my father is somewhere about the
place, he must be close at hand. James--Corney--run out and tell your
master; my brother is seldom at home, at least at any reasonable hour;
you must be so tired--so fatigued--let me show you to your room; see
that Lady Margaret's luggage is all brought up; you must lie down and
rest yourself. Deborah, bring some coffee--up these stairs; we are
so delighted to see you--you cannot think how lonely I have been; how
steep these stairs are, are not they? I am so glad you are come--I
could hardly bring myself to believe that you were really coming;
how good of you, dear Lady Margaret." There was real good nature
and delight in my cousin's greeting, and a kind of constitutional
confidence of manner which placed me at once at ease, and made me feel
immediately upon terms of intimacy with her. The room into which
she ushered me, although partaking in the general air of decay which
pervaded the mansion and all about it, had, nevertheless, been fitted
up with evident attention to comfort, and even with some dingy attempt
at luxury; but what pleased me most was that it opened, by a second
door, upon a lobby which communicated with my fair cousin's apartment;
a circumstance which divested the room, in my eyes, of the air of
solitude and sadness which would otherwise have characterised it, to a
degree almost painful to one so depressed and agitated as I was.

After such arrangements as I found necessary were completed, we both
went down to the parlour, a large wainscotted room, hung round with
grim old portraits, and, as I was not sorry to see, containing, in its
ample grate, a large and cheerful fire. Here my cousin had leisure to
talk more at her ease; and from her I learned something of the manners
and the habits of the two remaining members of her family, whom I had
not yet seen. On my arrival