An entrance was effected by the kitchen;
and not only was there no fire, but there was no light of any
description; and the one dip we brought on to the scene betrayed such
squalor on all sides, that the suggestion of a _salle-a-manger_ in
connection with such a kitchen became at once an impudent mockery. When
this farther room was reached, it proved to be even worse than the
kitchen. It was shut up for the night--had been shut up apparently for a
week--and was in the possession of the cats of the town, and the flies
of Egypt. Two monstrous hounds entered with us; and the cats fled
hastily by a window which was slightly open at the top, spitting and
howling with fear when they missed the first spring, and came within the
cognisance of their mortal foes.
The first thing to be done was to wash off some of the accumulated dust;
but when I asked for a bedroom for that purpose, I was conducted to a
copper in the kitchen, the water in which had been a permanency for some
time past, and was told to wash there. As for supper, there was some
cold mutton; but the landlady unfortunately opened the door of the
cupboard as she said so, and displayed a state of things which decided
the point against the mutton.
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