CHAPTER II. THE MIRROR
Nothing more happened for some days. I think it was about a week after,when what I have now to tell took place.
I had often thought of the manuscript fragment, and repeatedly triedto discover some way of releasing it, but in vain: I could not find outwhat held it fast.
But I had for some time intended a thorough overhauling of the books inthe closet, its atmosphere causing me uneasiness as to their condition.One day the intention suddenly became a resolve, and I was in the act ofrising from my chair to make a beginning, when I saw the old librarianmoving from the door of the closet toward the farther end of the room.I ought rather to say only that I caught sight of something shadowy fromwhich I received the impression of a slight, stooping man, in a shabbydress-coat reaching almost to his heels, the tails of which, dispartinga little as he walked, revealed thin legs in black stockings, and largefeet in wide, slipper-like shoes.
At once I followed him: I might be following a shadow, but I neverdoubted I was following something. He went out of the library into thehall, and across to the foot of the great staircase, then up the stairsto the first floor, where lay the chief rooms. Past these rooms, Ifollowing close, he continued his way, through a wide corridor, to thefoot of a narrower stair leading to the second floor. Up that he wentalso, and when I reached the top, strange as it may seem, I found myselfin a region almost unknown to me. I never had brother or sister toincite to such romps as make children familiar with nook and cranny; Iwas a mere child when my guardian took me away; and I had never seen thehouse again until, about a month before, I returned to take possession.
Through passage after passage we came to a door at the bottom of awinding wooden stair, which we ascended. Every step creaked under myfoot, but I heard no sound from that of my guide. Somewhere in themiddle of the stair I lost sight of him, and from the top of it theshadowy shape was nowhere visible. I could not even imagine I saw him.The place was full of shadows, but he was not one of them.
I was in the main garret, with huge beams and rafters over my head,great spaces around me, a door here and there in sight, and long vistaswhose gloom was thinned by a few lurking cobwebbed windows and smalldusky skylights. I gazed with a strange mingling of awe and pleasure:the wide expanse of garret was my own, and unexplored!
In the middle of it stood an unpainted inclosure of rough planks, thedoor of which was ajar. Thinking Mr. Raven might be there, I pushed thedoor, and entered.
The small chamber was full of light, but such as dwells in placesdeserted: it had a dull, disconsolate look, as if it found itself of nouse, and regretted having come. A few rather dim sunrays, marking theirtrack through the cloud of motes that had just been stirred up,fell upon a tall mirror with a dusty face, old-fashioned and rathernarrow--in appearance an ordinary glass. It had an ebony frame, on thetop of which stood a black eagle, with outstretched wings, in his beak agolden chain, from whose end hung a black ball.
I had been looking at rather than into the mirror, when suddenly Ibecame aware that it reflected neither the chamber nor my own person. Ihave an impression of having seen the wall melt away, but what followedis enough to account for any uncertainty:--could I have mistaken for amirror the glass that protected a wonderful picture?
I saw before me a wild country, broken and heathy. Desolate hills ofno great height, but somehow of strange appearance, occupied the middledistance; along the horizon stretched the tops of a far-off mountainrange; nearest me lay a tract of moorland, flat and melancholy.
Being short-sighted, I stepped closer to examine the texture of a stonein the immediate foreground, and in the act espied, hopping toward mewith solemnity, a large and ancient raven, whose purply black was hereand there softened with gray. He seemed looking for worms as he came.Nowise astonished at the appearance of a live creature in a picture,I took another step forward to see him better, stumbled oversomething--doubtless the frame of the mirror--and stood nose to beakwith the bird: I was in the open air, on a houseless heath!