Accordingly, it was with the feeling of the utmost relief that, upon quitting the ferry-boat, he was met by a negro, who told him that M. de Troinville had been already informed of their coming, and that, because of the storm, a conveyance had been waiting at the ferry-house ever since early in the evening to transport the young lady and her baggage to that gentleman's house.
A large coach was indeed in waiting, the driver, the horses, and the vehicle alike covered thickly with a coating of white. In this conveyance our hero, with the utmost solicitude, disposed the young lady, and at the same time ordered that the portmanteau should be deposited upon the front seat. Having thereupon distributed a liberal gratuity to those who had assisted him, he himself immediately entered, and closed the door; and instantly the driver cracked his whip, and the coach whirled away, with scarcely a sound, upon the muffled and velvet-like covering of the street, directing its course through the continually falling clouds of whiteness.
Nor could Griscombe so far penetrate the obscurity of the thickly falling snow as at all to tell whither they were being conveyed. Several corners were turned and a number of streets were traversed, the lamps whereof were entirely unable to pierce the falling clouds of snow so as to declare the locality toward which the coach was being driven.
At length, however, after a rather protracted journeying, and to our hero's considerable relief, the carriage stopped at the sidewalk before a large and imposing edifice, altogether unlighted and as black as night. No other building was immediately near; and the mansion stood altogether alone, looking down upon the street in solitary state.
Almost instantly upon the arrival of the coach a number of servants appeared upon the sidewalk, as though they had been waiting in expectation of the coming of the travellers. Some of these opened the door of the conveyance, and assisted the young lady and our hero to alight; others took charge of the portmanteau, which they proceeded immediately to carry into the house; others, again, stood about as though waiting in attendance upon the new arrivals.
All these attentions were preferred with a singular assiduity and in such entire silence that Griscombe knew not whether most to admire the imposing extent of M. de Troinville's household or the extraordinary training of his attendants. Turning to one who appeared to be the upper servant, our hero commanded that the portmanteau be conveyed to some place of safety unopened, and carefully guarded, and that he himself be immediately conducted to M. de Troinville for a private interview concerning business of the utmost importance. In reply the man to whom he spoke delivered an order in a foreign tongue, which Griscombe was entirely unable to understand, whereupon two attendants, as in obedience to his command, conducted him and the young lady up the steps and into a wide and imposing hallway, the front door whereof was instantly shut upon them.
It was but little wonder that Griscombe and Miss Desmond should have stood gazing about them altogether at a loss to understand in what manner of place they had arrived. For, however much they might have been surprised at any eccentricity of a French gentleman living entirely alone in bachelor quarters, what they beheld was the very last thing they might have expected.
The faint yellow light of a single lamp, suspended from the lofty ceiling by a chain, diffused a dim illumination throughout the space, and by its yellow glow Griscombe discovered, with no little surprise, that the hall was altogether unfurnished. Not a fragment of carpet lay upon the floor, not a chair, not a stick of furniture, relieved the bleak and barren space of wainscot about them; but all was a perfectly empty and barren desolation.