Giles there, is Giblets. He did not
like it first, but he answers quick enough now; and Old Lucy Wyat there,'
nodding toward the old woman, 'is Lucia de l'Amour.' A slightly erroneous
reading of Lammermoor, for my cousin sometimes made mistakes, and was not
much versed in the Italian opera. 'You know it's a play, and I call her
L'Amour for shortness;' and she laughed hilariously, and I could not
forbear joining; and, winking at me, she called aloud, 'L'Amour.'

To which the crone, with a high-cauled cap, resembling Mother Hubbard,
responded with a courtesy and 'Yes,'m.'

'Are all the trunks and boxes took up?'

They were.

'Well, we'll come now; and what shall I call you, Quince? Let me see.'

'According to your pleasure, Miss,' answered Mary, with dignity, and a dry
courtesy.

'Why, you're as hoarse as a frog, Quince. We'll call you Quinzy for the
present. That'll do. Come along, Quinzy.'

So my Cousin Milly took me under the arm, and pulled me forward; but as we
ascended, she let me go, leaning back to make inspection of my attire from
a new point of view.

'Hallo, cousin,' she cried, giving my dress a smack with her open hand.
'What a plague do you want of all that bustle; you'll leave it behind,
lass, the first bush you jump over.'

I was a good deal astounded. I was also very near laughing, for there was
a sort of importance in her plump countenance, and an indescribable
grotesqueness in the fashion of her garments, which heightened the
outlandishness of her talk, in a way which I cannot at all describe.

What palatial wide stairs those were which we ascended, with their
prodigious carved banisters of oak, and each huge pillar on the
landing-place crowned with a shield and carved heraldic supporters; florid
oak panelling covered the walls. But of the house I could form no estimate,
for Uncle Silas's housekeeping did not provide light for hall and passages,
and we were dependent on the glimmer of a single candle; but there would be
quite enough of this kind of exploration in the daylight.

So along dark oak flooring we advanced to my room, and I had now an
opportunity of admiring, at my leisure, the lordly proportions of the
building. Two great windows, with dark and tarnished curtains, rose half as
high again as the windows of Knowl; and yet Knowl, in its own style, is a
fine house. The door-frames, like the window-frames, were richly carved;
the fireplace was in the same massive style, and the mantelpi