-hand everywhere: the
railings round the house were dilapidated--some had lost there points,
others came to an abrupt conclusion a few inches above the stone-work
from which they sprang; the steps were dilapidated--one of them rocked
as you set your foot upon it, and the others sloped inwards so as to
hold treacherous puddles in wet weather to entrap unwary visitors; the
entrance hall was dilapidated; if ever there had been a pattern to the
paper, it had now retired out of sight and given place to irregular
stains, which looked something like a vast map of a desolate country,
all moors and swamps; the doors were dilapidated, fitting so badly, that
when the front door opened a sympathetic clatter of all the lesser ones
rang through the house; the floors were dilapidated, and afforded ample
convenience for easy egress and ingress to the flourishing colonies of
rats and mice which had established themselves on the premises; and
above all, Mr Tankardew himself was dilapidated in his dress, and in
his whole appearance and habits--his very voice was dilapidated, and his
words slipshod and slovenly.

And yet Mr Tankardew was a man of education and a gentleman, and you
knew it before you had been five minutes in his company. He was the
owner of the house he lived in, on the outskirts of the small town of
Hopeworth, and also of considerable property in the neighbourhood.
Amongst other possessions, he was the landlord of two houses of some
pretensions, a little out in the country, which were prettily situated
in the midst of shrubberies and orchards. In one of these houses lived
a Mr Rothwell, a gentleman of independent means; in the other a Mrs
Franklin, the widow of an officer, with her daughter Mary, now about
fifteen years of age.

Mr Tankardew had settled in his present residence some ten years since.
_Why_ he bought it nobody knew, nor was likely to know; all that people
were sure of was that he _had_ bought it, and pretty cheap too, for it
was not a house likely to attract any one who appreciated comfort or
liveliness; moreover, current report said that it was haunted. Still,
it was for sale, and it passed somehow or other into Mr Tankardew's
hands, and Mr Tankardew's hands and whole person passed into _it_; and
here he was now with his one old servant, Molly Gilders, a shade more
dingy and dilapidated than himself. Several persons put questions to
Molly about her master, but found it a very discouraging business, so