And there, at the feet of the awful jesting hag, Circumstance, I
could only cry 'Winnie! my poor Winnie!' while over my head seemed to
pass Necessity and her black ages of despair.
When I came to myself I said to the woman,
'You can point out the grave?'
'Well, yes,' paid slip, turning round sharply; 'but may I ax who the
dickens you are?--an' what makes you so cut up about a pore woman's
darter? It's right-on beautiful to see how kind gentlemen is
nowadays': and she turned and tried, stumbling, to lead the way
downstairs.
As we left the room I turned round to look at it. The picture of the
mattress, now nearly hidden in the shadows--the picture of the other
furniture in the room--two chairs--or rather one and a part of a
chair, for the rails of the hack were gone--a table, a large brown
jug, the handle of which had been replaced by a piece of string, and
a white washhand-basin, with most of the rim broken away, and a
shallow tub apparently used for a bath--seemed to sink into my flesh
as though bitten in by the etcher's aquafortis.
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