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"We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the

fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house,

with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little

low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the

generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no

signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster

was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in

green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an

air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the

lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon

my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent

man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at

least a fellow-countryman.