 chambers, which upon the
darkest nights have a watchful consciousness of French polish; the old Spanish
mahogany winked at it now and then, as a dozing cat or dog might, nothing more.
The very size and shape, and hopeless immoveability of the bedstead, and
wardrobe, and in a minor degree of even the chairs and tables, provoked sleep;
they were plainly apoplectic and disposed to snore. There were no staring
portraits to remonstrate with you for being lazy; no round-eyed birds upon the
curtains, disgustingly wide awake, and insufferably prying. The thick neutral
hangings, and the dark blinds, and the heavy heap of bed-clothes, were all
designed to hold in sleep, and act as non-conductors to the day and getting up.
Even the old stuffed fox upon the top of the wardrobe was devoid of any spark of
vigilance, for his glass eye had fallen out, and he slumbered as he stood.
    The wandering attention of the mistress of the Blue Dragon roved to these
things but twice or thrice, and then for but an instant at a time. It soon
deserted them, and even the distant bed with its strange burden, for the young
creature immediately before her, who, with her downcast eyes intently fixed upon
the fire, sat wrapped in silent meditation.
    She was very young; apparently no more than seventeen; timid and shrinking
in her manner, and yet with a greater share of self-possession and control over
her emotions than usually belongs to a far more advanced period of female life.
This she had abundantly shown, but now, in her tending of the sick gentleman.
She was short in stature; and her figure was slight, as became her years; but
all the charms of youth and maidenhood set it off, and clustered on her gentle
brow. Her face was very pale, in part no doubt from recent agitation. Her dark
brown hair, disordered from the same cause, had fallen negligently from its
bonds, and hung upon her neck: for which instance of its waywardness, no male
observer would have had the heart to blame it.
    Her attire was that of a lady, but extremely plain; and in her manner, even
when she sat as still as she did then, there was an indefinable something which
appeared to be in kindred with her scrupulously unpretending dress. She had sat,
at first looking anxiously towards the bed; but seeing that the patient remained
quiet, and was busy with his writing, she had softly moved her chair into its
present place: partly, as it seemed, from an instinctive consciousness
