Lilith: A Romance: Complete

ISBN-10
ISBN-13: 9798705233595
Series: Lilith
Pages: 182
Language: English
Published: 2021-02-06
Author: George MacDonald

Description

Nothing more happened for some days. I think it was about a week after, when what I have nowto tell took place.I had often thought of the manuscript fragment, and repeatedly tried to discover some way ofreleasing it, but in vain: I could not find out what held it fast.But I had for some time intended a thorough overhauling of the books in the closet, itsatmosphere causing me uneasiness as to their condition. One day the intention suddenly became aresolve, and I was in the act of rising from my chair to make a beginning, when I saw the oldlibrarian moving from the door of the closet toward the farther end of the room. I ought rather tosay only that I caught sight of something shadowy from which I received the impression of a slight, stooping man, in a shabby dress-coat reaching almost to his heels, the tails of which, disparting alittle as he walked, revealed thin legs in black stockings, and large feet in wide, slipper-like shoes.At once I followed him: I might be following a shadow, but I never doubted I was followingsomething. He went out of the library into the hall, and across to the foot of the great staircase, thenup the stairs to the first floor, where lay the chief rooms. Past these rooms, I following close, hecontinued his way, through a wide corridor, to the foot of a narrower stair leading to the secondfloor. Up that he went also, and when I reached the top, strange as it may seem, I found myself in aregion almost unknown to me. I never had brother or sister to incite to such romps as makechildren familiar with nook and cranny; I was a mere child when my guardian took me away; and Ihad never seen the house again until, about a month before, I returned to take possession.Through passage after passage we came to a door at the bottom of a winding wooden stair, whichwe ascended. Every step creaked under my foot, but I heard no sound from that of my guide.Somewhere in the middle of the stair I lost sight of him, and from the top of it the shadowy shapewas nowhere visible. I could not even imagine I saw him. The place was full of shadows, but he wasnot one of them.I was in the main garret, with huge beams and rafters over my head, great spaces around me, adoor here and there in sight, and long vistas whose gloom was thinned by a few lurking cobwebbedwindows and small dusky skylights. I gazed with a strange mingling of awe and pleasure: the wideexpanse of garret was my own, and unexplored