He was a snuff-taker, and it had been the
pride of my heart to save the IPSA CORPORA of the first score of
guineas I could hoard, and to have them converted into as
tasteful a snuff-box as Rundell and Bridge could devise. This I
had thrust for security into the breast of my waistcoat, while,
impatient to transfer it to the person for whom it was destined,
I hastened to his house in Brown Square. When the front of the
house became visible a feeling of alarm checked me. I had been
long absent from Scotland; my friend was some years older than I;
he might have been called to the congregation of the just. I
paused, and gazed on the house as if I had hoped to form some
conjecture from the outward appearance concerning the state of
the family within. I know not how it was, but the lower windows
being all closed, and no one stirring, my sinister forebodings
were rather strengthened. I regretted now that I had not made
inquiry before I left the inn where I alighted from the mail-
coach. But it was too late; so I hurried on, eager to know the
best or the worst which I could learn.
The brass-plate bearing my friend's name and designation was
still on the door, and when it was opened the old domestic
appeared a good deal older, I thought, than he ought naturally to
have looked, considering the period of my absence.
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