Chapter 21

by Jane Austen

　　A moment's glance was enough to satisfy Catherinethat her apartment was very unlike the one which Henryhad endeavoured to alarm her by the description of.It was by no means unreasonably large, and contained neithertapestry nor velvet. The walls were papered, the floorwas carpeted; the windows were neither less perfect nor moredim than those of the drawing-room below; the furniture,though not of the latest fashion, was handsome and comfortable,and the air of the room altogether far from uncheerful.Her heart instantaneously at ease on this point, she resolvedto lose no time in particular examination of anything,as she greatly dreaded disobliging the general by any delay.Her habit therefore was thrown off with all possible haste,and she was preparing to unpin the linen package, which thechaise-seat had conveyed for her immediate accommodation,when her eye suddenly fell on a large high chest,standing back in a deep recess on one side of the fireplace.The sight of it made her start; and, forgetting everythingelse, she stood gazing on it in motionless wonder,while these thoughts crossed her:

　　"This is strange indeed! I did not expect such a sightas this! An immense heavy chest! What can it hold? Whyshould it be placed here? Pushed back too, as if meant tobe out of sight! I will look into it--cost me what it may,I will look into it--and directly too--by daylight.If I stay till evening my candle may go out."She advanced and examined it closely: it was of cedar,curiously inlaid with some darker wood, and raised,about a foot from the ground, on a carved stand of the same.The lock was silver, though tarnished from age; at eachend were the imperfect remains of handles also of silver,broken perhaps prematurely by some strange violence;and, on the centre of the lid, was a mysterious cipher,in the same metal. Catherine bent over it intently,but without being able to distinguish anything with certainty.She could not, in whatever direction she took it,believe the last letter to be a T; and yet that it shouldbe anything else in that house was a circumstance to raiseno common degree of astonishment. If not originally theirs,by what strange events could it have fallen into the Tilneyfamily?

　　Her fearful curiosity was every moment growing greater;and seizing, with trembling hands, the hasp of the lock,she resolved at all hazards to satisfy herself at leastas to its contents. With difficulty, for something seemedto resist her efforts, she raised the lid a few inches;but at that moment a sudden knocking at the door of theroom made her, starting, quit her hold, and the lidclosed with alarming violence. This ill-timed intruderwas Miss Tilney's maid, sent by her mistress to be ofuse to Miss Morland; and though Catherine immediatelydismissed her, it recalled her to the sense of what sheought to be doing, and forced her, in spite of her anxiousdesire to penetrate this mystery, to proceed in her dressingwithout further delay. Her progress was not quick,for her thoughts and her eyes were still bent on the objectso well calculated to interest and alarm; and thoughshe dared not waste a moment upon a second attempt,she could not remain many paces from the chest.At length, however, having slipped one arm into her gown,her toilette seemed so nearly finished that the impatienceof her curiosity might safely be indulged. One momentsurely might be spared; and, so desperate should bethe exertion of her strength, that, unless securedby supernatural means, the lid in one moment shouldbe thrown back. With this spirit she sprang forward,and her confidence did not deceive her. Her resoluteeffort threw back the lid, and gave to her astonished eyesthe view of a white cotton counterpane, properly folded,reposing at one end of the chest in undisputed possession!

　　She was gazing on it with the first blush of surprisewhen Miss Tilney, anxious for her friend's being ready,entered the room, and to the rising shame of havingharboured for some minutes an absurd expectation, was thenadded the shame of being caught in so idle a search."That is a curious old chest, is not it?" said Miss Tilney,as Catherine hastily closed it and turned away to the glass."It is impossible to say how many generations it hasbeen here. How it came to be first put in this room Iknow not, but I have not had it moved, because I thoughtit might sometimes be of use in holding hats and bonnets.The worst of it is that its weight makes it difficultto open. In that corner, however, it is at least out ofthe way."

　　Catherine had no leisure for speech, being atonce blushing, tying her gown, and forming wise resolutionswith the most violent dispatch. Miss Tilney gently hintedher fear of being late; and in half a minute they randownstairs together, in an alarm not wholly unfounded,for General Tilney was pacing the drawing-room, his watchin his hand, and having, on the very instant of their entering,pulled the bell with violence, ordered "Dinner to beon table directly!"

　　Catherine trembled at the emphasis with which he spoke,and sat pale and breathless, in a most humble mood,concerned for his children, and detesting old chests;and the general, recovering his politeness as he lookedat her, spent the rest of his time in scolding his daughterfor so foolishly hurrying her fair friend, who was absolutelyout of breath from haste, when there was not the leastoccasion for hurry in the world: but Catherine could notat all get over the double distress of having involvedher friend in a lecture and been a great simpleton herself,till they were happily seated at the dinner-table, whenthe general's complacent smiles, and a good appetiteof her own, restored her to peace. The dining-parlourwas a noble room, suitable in its dimensions to a muchlarger drawing-room than the one in common use, and fittedup in a style of luxury and expense which was almost loston the unpractised eye of Catherine, who saw little morethan its spaciousness and the number of their attendants.Of the former, she spoke aloud her admiration;and the general, with a very gracious countenance,acknowledged that it was by no means an ill-sized room,and further confessed that, though as careless on suchsubjects as most people, he did look upon a tolerablylarge eating-room as one of the necessaries of life;he supposed, however, "that she must have been usedto much better-sized apartments at Mr. Allen's?"

　　"No, indeed," was Catherine's honest assurance;"Mr. Allen's dining-parlour was not more than half as large,"and she had never seen so large a room as this in her life.The general's good humour increased. Why, as he hadsuch rooms, he thought it would be simple not to makeuse of them; but, upon his honour, he believed theremight be more comfort in rooms of only half their size.Mr. Allen's house, he was sure, must be exactly of the truesize for rational happiness.

　　The evening passed without any further disturbance,and, in the occasional absence of General Tilney, with muchpositive cheerfulness. It was only in his presence thatCatherine felt the smallest fatigue from her journey;and even then, even in moments of languor or restraint,a sense of general happiness preponderated, and she couldthink of her friends in Bath without one wish of beingwith them.

　　The night was stormy; the wind had been rising atintervals the whole afternoon; and by the time the partybroke up, it blew and rained violently. Catherine, as shecrossed the hall, listened to the tempest with sensationsof awe; and, when she heard it rage round a corner of theancient building and close with sudden fury a distant door,felt for the first time that she was really in an abbey.Yes, these were characteristic sounds; they brought to herrecollection a countless variety of dreadful situationsand horrid scenes, which such buildings had witnessed,and such storms ushered in; and most heartily didshe rejoice in the happier circumstances attendingher entrance within walls so solemn! She had nothingto dread from midnight assassins or drunken gallants.Henry had certainly been only in jest in what he had toldher that morning. In a house so furnished, and so guarded,she could have nothing to explore or to suffer, and mightgo to her bedroom as securely as if it had been her ownchamber at Fullerton. Thus wisely fortifying her mind,as she proceeded upstairs, she was enabled, especially onperceiving that Miss Tilney slept only two doors from her,to enter her room with a tolerably stout heart; and herspirits were immediately assisted by the cheerful blazeof a wood fire. "How much better is this," said she,as she walked to the fender--"how much better to find a fireready lit, than to have to wait shivering in the coldtill all the family are in bed, as so many poor girlshave been obliged to do, and then to have a faithful oldservant frightening one by coming in with a faggot! Howglad I am that Northanger is what it is! If it had beenlike some other places, I do not know that, in such a nightas this, I could have answered for my courage: but now,to be sure, there is nothing to alarm one."

　　She looked round the room. The window curtains seemedin motion. It could be nothing but the violence of thewind penetrating through the divisions of the shutters;and she stepped boldly forward, carelessly humming a tune,to assure herself of its being so, peeped courageouslybehind each curtain, saw nothing on either low window seatto scare her, and on placing a hand against the shutter,felt the strongest conviction of the wind's force.A glance at the old chest, as she turned away fromthis examination, was not without its use; she scornedthe causeless fears of an idle fancy, and began with amost happy indifference to prepare herself for bed."She should take her time; she should not hurry herself;she did not care if she were the last person up in the house.But she would not make up her fire; that would seem cowardly,as if she wished for the protection of light after shewere in bed." The fire therefore died away, and Catherine,having spent the best part of an hour in her arrangements,was beginning to think of stepping into bed, when, on givinga parting glance round the room, she was struck by theappearance of a high, old-fashioned black cabinet, which,though in a situation conspicuous enough, had never caughther notice before. Henry's words, his description of theebony cabinet which was to escape her observation at first,immediately rushed across her; and though there couldbe nothing really in it, there was something whimsical,it was certainly a very remarkable coincidence! Shetook her candle and looked closely at the cabinet.It was not absolutely ebony and gold; but it was japan,black and yellow japan of the handsomest kind; and as sheheld her candle, the yellow had very much the effectof gold. The key was in the door, and she had a strangefancy to look into it; not, however, with the smallestexpectation of finding anything, but it was so very odd,after what Henry had said. In short, she could notsleep till she had examined it. So, placing the candlewith great caution on a chair, she seized the key with avery tremulous hand and tried to turn it; but it resistedher utmost strength. Alarmed, but not discouraged,she tried it another way; a bolt flew, and she believedherself successful; but how strangely mysterious!The door was still immovable. She paused a momentin breathless wonder. The wind roared down the chimney,the rain beat in torrents against the windows, and everythingseemed to speak the awfulness of her situation.To retire to bed, however, unsatisfied on such a point,would be vain, since sleep must be impossible with theconsciousness of a cabinet so mysteriously closed in herimmediate vicinity. Again, therefore, she applied herselfto the key, and after moving it in every possible wayfor some instants with the determined celerity of hope'slast effort, the door suddenly yielded to her hand: herheart leaped with exultation at such a victory, and havingthrown open each folding door, the second being securedonly by bolts of less wonderful construction than the lock,though in that her eye could not discern anything unusual,a double range of small drawers appeared in view,with some larger drawers above and below them; and inthe centre, a small door, closed also with a lock and key,secured in all probability a cavity of importance.

　　Catherine's heart beat quick, but her courage didnot fail her. With a cheek flushed by hope, and an eyestraining with curiosity, her fingers grasped the handleof a drawer and drew it forth. It was entirely empty.With less alarm and greater eagerness she seized a second,a third, a fourth; each was equally empty. Not one wasleft unsearched, and in not one was anything found.Well read in the art of concealing a treasure, the possibilityof false linings to the drawers did not escape her,and she felt round each with anxious acuteness in vain.The place in the middle alone remained now unexplored;and though she had "never from the first had the smallestidea of finding anything in any part of the cabinet,and was not in the least disappointed at her ill successthus far, it would be foolish not to examine it thoroughlywhile she was about it." It was some time however beforeshe could unfasten the door, the same difficulty occurringin the management of this inner lock as of the outer;but at length it did open; and not vain, as hitherto,was her search; her quick eyes directly fell on a rollof paper pushed back into the further part of the cavity,apparently for concealment, and her feelings at thatmoment were indescribable. Her heart fluttered,her knees trembled, and her cheeks grew pale. She seized,with an unsteady hand, the precious manuscript, for halfa glance sufficed to ascertain written characters;and while she acknowledged with awful sensations thisstriking exemplification of what Henry had foretold,resolved instantly to peruse every line before she attemptedto rest.

　　The dimness of the light her candle emitted madeher turn to it with alarm; but there was no dangerof its sudden extinction; it had yet some hours to burn;and that she might not have any greater difficultyin distinguishing the writing than what its ancient datemight occasion, she hastily snuffed it. Alas! It was snuffedand extinguished in one. A lamp could not have expiredwith more awful effect. Catherine, for a few moments,was motionless with horror. It was done completely;not a remnant of light in the wick could give hopeto the rekindling breath. Darkness impenetrable andimmovable filled the room. A violent gust of wind,rising with sudden fury, added fresh horror to the moment.Catherine trembled from head to foot. In the pausewhich succeeded, a sound like receding footsteps and theclosing of a distant door struck on her affrighted ear.Human nature could support no more. A cold sweat stoodon her forehead, the manuscript fell from her hand,and groping her way to the bed, she jumped hastily in,and sought some suspension of agony by creeping farunderneath the clothes. To close her eyes in sleepthat night, she felt must be entirely out of the question.With a curiosity so justly awakened, and feelings in everyway so agitated, repose must be absolutely impossible.The storm too abroad so dreadful! She had not been usedto feel alarm from wind, but now every blast seemed fraughtwith awful intelligence. The manuscript so wonderfully found,so wonderfully accomplishing the morning's prediction,how was it to be accounted for? What could it contain? Towhom could it relate? By what means could it have beenso long concealed? And how singularly strange that itshould fall to her lot to discover it! Till she had madeherself mistress of its contents, however, she couldhave neither repose nor comfort; and with the sun's firstrays she was determined to peruse it. But many were thetedious hours which must yet intervene. She shuddered,tossed about in her bed, and envied every quiet sleeper.The storm still raged, and various were the noises,more terrific even than the wind, which struck at intervalson her startled ear. The very curtains of her bed seemedat one moment in motion, and at another the lock of her doorwas agitated, as if by the attempt of somebody to enter.Hollow murmurs seemed to creep along the gallery, and more thanonce her blood was chilled by the sound of distant moans.Hour after hour passed away, and the wearied Catherinehad heard three proclaimed by all the clocks in the housebefore the tempest subsided or she unknowingly fellfast asleep.