"I could not help knowing," answered she simply, "for many people
have told me so."
At length these preliminaries were over, and they were walking
briskly through the frosty air; the free motion was so
inspiriting that Ruth almost danced along, and quite forgot all
about shabby gowns and grumbling guardians. The shire-hall was
even more striking than she had expected. The sides of the
staircase were painted with figures that showed ghostly in the
dim light, for only their faces looked out of the dark, dingy
canvas, with a strange fixed stare of expression.
The young milliners had to arrange their wares on tables in the
ante-room, and make all ready before they could venture to peep
into the hall-room, where the musicians were already tuning their
instruments, and where one or two charwomen (strange contrast,
with their dirty, loose attire, and their incessant chatter, to
the grand echoes of the vaulted room!) were completing the
dusting of benches and chairs.
They quitted the place as Ruth and her companions entered. They
had talked lightly and merrily in the ante-room, but now their
voices were hushed, awed by the old magnificence of the vast
apartment. It was so large that objects showed dim at the further
end, as through a mist. Full-length figures of county worthies
hung around, in all varieties of costume, from the days of
Holbein to the present time. The lofty roof was indistinct, for
the lamps were not fully lighted yet; while through the
richly-painted Gothic window at one end the moonbeams fell,
many-tinted, on the floor, and mocked with their vividness the
struggles of the artificial light to illuminate its little
sphere.
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