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1They returned to the hall, that the chief staircase might be ascended, and the beauty of its wood, and ornaments of rich
2carving might be pointed out: having gained the top, they turned in an opposite direction from the gallery in which her
3room lay, and shortly entered one on the same plan, but superior in length and breadth. She was here shown successively
4into three large bed-chambers, with their dressing-rooms, most completely and handsomely fitted up; everything that
5money and taste could do, to give comfort and elegance to apartments, had been bestowed on these; and, being furnished
6within the last five years, they were perfect in all that would be generally pleasing, and wanting in all that could
7give pleasure to Catherine. As they were surveying the last, the General, after slightly naming a few of the
8distinguished characters by whom they had at times been honoured, turned with a smiling countenance to Catherine, and
9ventured to hope that henceforward some of their earliest tenants might be "our friends from Fullerton." She felt the
10unexpected compliment, and deeply regretted the impossibility of thinking well of a man so kindly disposed towards
11herself, and so full of civility to all her family. The gallery was terminated by folding doors, which Miss Tilney,
12advancing, had thrown open, and passed through, and seemed on the point of doing the same by the first door to the left,
13in another long reach of gallery, when the General, coming forwards, called her hastily, and, as Catherine thought,
14rather angrily back, demanding whither she were going?--And what was there more to be seen?--Had not Miss Morland
15already seen all that could be worth her notice?--And did she not suppose her friend might be glad of some refreshment
16after so much exercise? Miss Tilney drew back directly, and the heavy doors were closed upon the mortified Catherine,
17who, having seen, in a momentary glance beyond them, a narrower passage, more numerous openings, and symptoms of a
18winding staircase, believed herself at last within the reach of something worth her notice; and felt, as she unwillingly
19paced back the gallery, that she would rather be allowed to examine that end of the house than see all the finery of all
20the rest. The General's evident desire of preventing such an examination was an additional stimulant. Something was
21certainly to be concealed; her fancy, though it had trespassed lately once or twice, could not mislead her here; and
22what that something was, a short sentence of Miss Tilney's, as they followed the General at some distance downstairs,
23seemed to point out: "I was going to take you into what was my mother's room--the room in which she died--" were all her
24words; but few as they were, they conveyed pages of intelligence to Catherine. It was no wonder that the General should
25shrink from the sight of such objects as that room must contain; a room in all probability never entered by him since
26the dreadful scene had passed, which released his suffering wife, and left him to the stings of conscience. She
27ventured, when next alone with Eleanor, to express her wish of being permitted to see it, as well as all the rest of
28that side of the house; and Eleanor promised to attend her there, whenever they should have a convenient hour. Catherine
29understood her: the General must be watched from home, before that room could be entered. "It remains as it was, I
30suppose?" said she, in a tone of feeling. "Yes, entirely." "And how long ago may it be that your mother died?" "She has
31been dead these nine years." And nine years, Catherine knew, was a trifle of time, compared with what generally elapsed
32after the death of an injured wife, before her room was put to rights. "You were with her, I suppose, to the last?"
33"No," said Miss Tilney, sighing; "I was unfortunately from home. Her illness was sudden and short; and, before I arrived
34it was all over." Catherine's blood ran cold with the horrid suggestions which naturally sprang from these words. Could
35it be possible? Could Henry's father--? And yet how many were the examples to justify even the blackest suspicions! and,
36when she saw him in the evening, while she worked with her friend, slowly pacing the drawing-room for an hour together
37in silent thoughtfulness, with downcast eyes and contracted brow, she felt secure from all possibility of wronging him.
38It was the air and attitude of a Montoni! what could more plainly speak the gloomy workings of a mind not wholly dead to
39every sense of humanity, in its fearful review of past scenes of guilt? Unhappy man! and the anxiousness of her spirits
40directed her eyes towards his figure so repeatedly, as to catch Miss Tilney's notice. "My father," she whispered, "often
41walks about the room in this way; it is nothing unusual." "So much the worse!" thought Catherine; such ill-timed
42exercise was of a piece with the strange unseasonableness of his morning walks, and boded nothing good. After an
43evening, the little variety and seeming length of which made her peculiarly sensible of Henry's importance among them,
44she was heartily glad to be dismissed; though it was a look from the General not designed for her observation which sent
45his daughter to the bell. When the butler would have lit his master's candle, however, he was forbidden. The latter was
46not going to retire. "I have many pamphlets to finish," said he to Catherine, "before I can close my eyes, and perhaps
47may be poring over the affairs of the nation for hours after you are asleep. Can either of us be more meetly employed?
48My eyes will be blinding for the good of others, and yours preparing by rest for future mischief." But neither the
49business alleged, nor the magnificent compliment, could win Catherine from thinking that some very different object must
50occasion so serious a delay of proper repose. To be kept up for hours, after the family were in bed, by stupid pamphlets
51was not very likely. There must be some deeper cause: something was to be done which could be done only while the
52household slept; and the probability that Mrs. Tilney yet lived, shut up for causes unknown, and receiving from the
53pitiless hands of her husband a nightly supply of coarse food, was the conclusion which necessarily followed. Shocking
54as was the idea, it was at least better than a death unfairly hastened, as, in the natural course of things, she must
55ere long be released. The suddenness of her reputed illness, the absence of her daughter, and probably of her other
56children, at the time--all favoured the supposition of her imprisonment. Its origin--jealousy perhaps, or wanton
57cruelty--was yet to be unravelled. In revolving these matters, while she undressed, it suddenly struck her as not
58unlikely that she might that morning have passed near the very spot of this unfortunate woman's confinement--might have
59been within a few paces of the cell in which she languished out her days; for what part of the abbey could be more
60fitted for the purpose than that which yet bore the traces of monastic division? In the high-arched passage, paved with
61stone, which already she had trodden with peculiar awe, she well remembered the doors of which the General had given no
62account. To what might not those doors lead? In support of the plausibility of this conjecture, it further occurred to
63her that the forbidden gallery, in which lay the apartments of the unfortunate Mrs. Tilney, must be, as certainly as her
64memory could guide her, exactly over this suspected range of cells, and the staircase by the side of those apartments of
65which she had caught a transient glimpse, communicating by some secret means with those cells, might well have favoured
66the barbarous proceedings of her husband. Down that staircase she had perhaps been conveyed in a state of well-prepared
67insensibility! Catherine sometimes started at the boldness of her own surmises, and sometimes hoped or feared that she
68had gone too far; but they were supported by such appearances as made their dismissal impossible.
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