The Woman in White, Page 5

  My travelling instructions directed me to go to Carlisle, and then todiverge by a branch railway which ran in the direction of the coast.As a misfortune to begin with, our engine broke down between Lancasterand Carlisle. The delay occasioned by this accident caused me to betoo late for the branch train, by which I was to have gone onimmediately. I had to wait some hours; and when a later train finallydeposited me at the nearest station to Limmeridge House, it was pastten, and the night was so dark that I could hardly see my way to thepony-chaise which Mr. Fairlie had ordered to be in waiting for me.

  The driver was evidently discomposed by the lateness of my arrival. Hewas in that state of highly respectful sulkiness which is peculiar toEnglish servants. We drove away slowly through the darkness in perfectsilence. The roads were bad, and the dense obscurity of the nightincreased the difficulty of getting over the ground quickly. It was,by my watch, nearly an hour and a half from the time of our leaving thestation before I heard the sound of the sea in the distance, and thecrunch of our wheels on a smooth gravel drive. We had passed one gatebefore entering the drive, and we passed another before we drew up atthe house. I was received by a solemn man-servant out of livery, wasinformed that the family had retired for the night, and was then ledinto a large and lofty room where my supper was awaiting me, in aforlorn manner, at one extremity of a lonesome mahogany wilderness ofdining-table.

  I was too tired and out of spirits to eat or drink much, especiallywith the solemn servant waiting on me as elaborately as if a smalldinner party had arrived at the house instead of a solitary man. In aquarter of an hour I was ready to be taken up to my bedchamber. Thesolemn servant conducted me into a prettily furnished room--said,"Breakfast at nine o'clock, sir"--looked all round him to see thateverything was in its proper place, and noiselessly withdrew.

  "What shall I see in my dreams to-night?" I thought to myself, as I putout the candle; "the woman in white? or the unknown inhabitants of thisCumberland mansion?" It was a strange sensation to be sleeping in thehouse, like a friend of the family, and yet not to know one of theinmates, even by sight!