rtion, rapidly reviewed the empty chambers. Cats,
servant, old lady, the very marks of habitation, like writing on a
slate, had been in these few hours obliterated. He wandered from floor
to floor, and found the house of great extent; the kitchen offices
commodious and well appointed; the rooms many and large; and the
drawing-room, in particular, an apartment of princely size and tasteful
decoration. Although the day without was warm, genial, and sunny, with a
ruffling wind from the quarter of Torquay, a chill, as it were, of
suspended animation, inhabited the house. Dust and shadows met the eye;
and but for the ominous procession of the echoes, and the rumour of the
wind among the garden trees, the ear of the young man was stretched in
vain.

Behind the dining-room, that pleasant library, referred to by the old
lady in her tale, looked upon the flat roofs and netted cupolas of the
kitchen quarters; and on a second visit, this room appeared to greet him
with a smiling countenance. He might as well, he thought, avoid the
expense of lodging: the library fitted with an iron bedstead which he
had remarked, in one of the upper chambers, would serve his purpose for
the night; while in the dining-room, which was large, airy, and
lightsome, looking on the square and garden, he might very agreeably
pass his days, cook his meals, and study to bring himself to some
proficiency in that art of painting which he had recently determined to
adopt. It did not take him long to make the change: he had soon returned
to the mansion with his modest kit; and the cabman who brought him was
readily induced, by the young man's pleasant manner and a small
gratuity, to assist him in the installation of the iron bed. By six in
the evening, when Somerset went forth to dine, he was able to look back
upon the mansion with a sense of pride and property. Four-square it
stood, of an imposing frontage, and flanked on either side by family
hatchments. His eye, from where he stood whistling in the key, with his
back to the garden railings, reposed on every feature of reality; and
yet his own possession seemed as flimsy as a dream.

In the course of a few days, the genteel inhabitants of the square began
to remark the customs of their neighbour. The sight of a young gentleman
discussing a clay pipe, about four o'clock of the afternoon, in the
drawing-room balcony of so discreet a mansion; and perhaps still more,
his periodical excursion to a decent tavern i