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Page 12
CHAPTER IV.
When Gabriel had shut the door after announcing his uncle's arrival, the
Consul got up and went off to the key-drawer, from whence he took a
gigantic key, to which was attached a wooden label black with age. He
then brushed his coat, and, after adjusting his chin in his neckcloth
and arranging his scanty locks, left the office.
The house was large and old fashioned, with long passages and broad
staircases. In the western wing were the offices, having a separate
entrance on the side towards the sea. On the southern side, and
overlooking the garden, were the bedrooms of the family, and the
apartments which were generally used as sitting-rooms.
The second floor consisted entirely of reception-rooms, which were so
arranged as to have the large ballroom in the middle, with _salons_ at
the side. In one of these rooms the family generally dined on Sunday, or
when they had guests, and it was the small _salon_ at the north-west
corner, looking over the building-yard and the sea, in which the dinner
was usually served.
On the third floor, or, more correctly, in the garrets, was an endless
number of spare rooms, whose windows looked out of the quaint dormers
which embellished the roof.
The furniture was mostly of mahogany, now dark with age, while chairs
and sofas were covered with horsehair. Against the walls stood tall dark
presses, and mirrors with the glass in two pieces, and having their
gilded frames adorned with urns and garlands. The rooms were lit by
old-fashioned chandeliers and girandoles.
The Consul met one of the servants in the passage. "Has Mr. Garman
arrived?"
"Yes, sir; and he has gone upstairs, to my mistress," answered the girl.
When the weather was warm, Mrs. Garman usually preferred one of the airy
rooms upstairs. She was a very fat lady, who lived in a continual state
of strife with dyspepsia. From whatever side you looked at her, she
presented a succession of smoothly rounded curves covered with shining
black silk.
It was wonderful that Mrs. Garman got so stout; it must have been, as
she herself said, "a cross" she had to bear. She seemed to eat very
little at her meals, and could not control her astonishment at the
appetites of the rest of the company. Only at times, when she was alone
in her room, she seemed to have a fancy for some little delicacy, and
Miss Cordsen used to bring her a little bit of just what happened to be
handy.
When the Consul entered her room, his wife was sitting on the sofa,
engaged in conversation with her brother-in-law.
"How are you? how are you, Christian Frederick?" said Richard, gaily.
"Here I am again!"
"You are welcome, Richard. I am charmed to see you," answered the
Consul, keeping his hands behind his back.
Richard seemed quite confused, as he generally was when he met his
brother, who sometimes could be as gay and cheerful as when they were
boys, and at others would put on his business manner, and be cold,
repellant, and so abominably precise.
"Is any one coming to dinner to-day, Caroline?" asked Consul Garman.
"Pastor Martens has announced his kind intention of introducing the new
school inspector to us," answered the lady.
"Yes, I dare say, another of your parson friends," said the Consul,
drily; "then, I'll just send the coachman with the carriage for Morten
and Fanny, and ask them to bring some young people with them: they might
find Jacob Worse, perhaps."
"What for?" answered the lady, in a tone which showed an inclination to
dispute the proposition.
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