There were portraits of different date on the walls of the various
apartments, old painted coats-of-arms, bevel-edged mirrors, and in one
sleeping-room a glass case of wax-work flowers and spangly symbols, with
a legend signifying that E. M. (supposed to be Elizabeth Mascarene)
wished not to be "forgot"
"When I am dead and lay'd in dust
And all my bones are"--
Poor E. M.! Poor everybody that sighs for earthly remembrance in a
planet with a core of fire and a crust of fossils!
Such was the Dudley mansion-house,--for it kept its ancient name in spite
of the change in the line of descent. Its spacious apartments looked
dreary and desolate; for here Dudley Venner and his daughter dwelt by
themselves, with such servants only as their quiet mode of life required.
He almost lived in his library, the western room on the ground-floor.
Its window looked upon a small plat of green, in the midst of which was a
single grave marked by a plain marble slab. Except this room, and the
chamber where he slept, and the servants' wing, the rest of the house was
all Elsie's.
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