VARNEY, THE VAMPYRE; OR, THE FEAST OF BLOOD. CHAPTER CLXII [sic] [Chapter 180] THE SECOND ARRIVAL AT THE LONDON HOTEL. -- THE MYSTERIOUS GUEST. Scarcely had the bustle of the arrival we have noticed subsided at the London Hotel, when another travelling chariot dashed up to the door, and the landlord made a rush out to welcome his new arrival, considering himself quite in luck to have two such customers in one evening. A gentleman, on whose head was a fur travelling cap, was at one of the windows of this carriage, and he called to the landlord, saying, -- "Are your best rooms occupied?" "Not the best, sir," was the reply, "for we have several suites of apartments in all respects equal to each other; but we have a family just arrived in one suite. The Lake family, sir." "Well, it don't matter to me who you have; I will get out if you can accomodate me." "Oh, certainly, sir; you will find here accomodation of the very first character, I can assure you, sir. Pray, sir, alight. Allow me, sir, to hold an umbrella over you. It's a bad night, sir; I'm afraid the winter is setting in very strangely, sir, and prophetically of----" "Silence. I don't want your opinion of the matter. If there's one thing I dislike more than another, it's a chattering man." This rebuff silenced the landlord, who said not another word, although probably he thought the more; and those thoughts were not of a very kindly character as regarded the stranger, who had so very unceremoniously stopped his amiable remarks. Indeed, when he got into the hall, he consigned the new comer to the care of the head waiter, and retired to his own apartment in great dudgeon. "I hope everything is quiet here," said the stranger to the head waiter. "Oh, dear, yes, sir; the house is as quiet as a lamb, sir, I can assure you. We have only three inmates at present, sir. There's the Lakes, -- hightly respectable people, sir. A brother of Lord Lakes, sir, I believe, and the----" "I don't want to hear who you have. What the devil is it to me? If there's anything I dislike more than another, it's a d--d magpie of a waiter." The head waiter was terribly offended, and said not another word, so that the gentleman was left in the sole occupation of his apartments, and then to fling himself upon a couch. "Ah, ah! God knows how it will all end. Well, well, we shall see, we shall see. They have arrived, and that's one comfort; I am now, then, I think so well made up, that they will not readily know me. Oh, no, no, I should hardly know myself, now, shaven clean as I am, after being accustomed on the continent, to wear beard and moustache. Well, well, we shall see, how it will all end. Thank the fates, they have not gone somewhere where I could not find them." He rung the bell. "Waiter, let me have the best the house affords, will you? and remember my name is Blue." "Sir! Bl-- Blue, sir?" "Yes, Diggory Blue." "Yes, sir, -- yes sir. Certainly. What an odd name," soliloquised the waiter, as he went down stairs to tell his master. "I say sir, the gent in No. 10 and 11 says his name is Diggory Blue." "Blue, Blue." said the landlord, "it is an odd name for a Christian." "Perhaps he ain't a Christian," said the very identical Mr. Blue himself, popping his head over the bar in which the little discourse was going on, between the landlord and the waiter. "How do you know he's a Christian?" "I beg your pardon, sir, really I-- I-- a-hem! a thousand pardons sir." "Pshaw!" The strange gentleman went to the door, and gave some directions to the servants belonging to his carriage, which sent them away, and then Mr. Blue started up into his rooms again, without saying another word to the landlord, who was terribly annoyed at being caught canvassing the name of one of his guests, with one of his waiters. "Confound him," he muttered, "he has no business to have such a name as Blue and good God! if his sirname was Blue, what the devil made his godfathers and godmothers call him Diggory? Sam, Sam!" "Yes, sir." "Put down in the book, Diggory Blue." "Yes, sir." "Bless us! why there's somebody else as I'm a sinner." The landlord could not have sworn by a better oath. He ran to the door, and there beheld another travelling carriage, out of which stepped a gentlemanly looking man enveloped in a rich travelling cloak lined with fur. "Can you accommodate us?" he said. "Yes, sir, with pleasure." "Who have you here, landlord?" "A family named Lake, sir, and a Mr. -- a-- Blue, sir." "Quiet people I dare say, I shall most likely remain with you a week or two. Let me have the best apartments you have unoccupied at present." "Yes, sir. This way if you please, sir-- this way." The last arrival seemed to be in bad health, for he walked very slowly, like a man suffering from great bodily exhaustion, and more than once he paused as he followed the landlord up the principal staircase of the hotel, as if it were absolutely necessary he should do so to recover breath, and moreover the landlord heard him sigh deeply, but whether that was from mental or physical distress he had no means of knowing. His curiosity, however, was much excited by the gentleman, and his sympathies likewise, for he was the reverse of Mr. Blue, and listened with a refined and gentlemanly courtesy to whatever was said to him by any one apparently, although it was evidently an effort to speak, so weak and ill did he seem to be." [sic] "I am sorry, sir," said the landlord, when he had shewn the gentleman into his rooms, "I am sorry sir, you don't seem well." "I am rather an invalid, but I dare say I shall soon be better, thank you-- thank you. One candle only, I dislike too much light: charge for as many as you please, but never let me have but one, landlord." "As you please, sir, as you please; I hope you will make yourself comfortable here, and I can assure you, sir, that nothing shall be wanting on my part to make you so." "I am sure of that, landlord; you are very good, thank you." "What name shall I say, sir, in case any gentleman should call to see you, sir?" "Black." "Black, sir!" -- "Black." -- "Oh, Mr. Black! -- Yes, sir, certainly, why not? Oh, of course. I-- only thought it a little odd, you see, sir, because we have a gentleman already in the house called Blue. That was all, sir. Mr. Black, thank you, sir." The landlord bowed himself out, and Mr. Black inclined his head with the look of a condescending emperor, so that when the landlord got down stairs, he said to his wife, -- "Now that _is_ a gentleman. he listens to all you have got to say, like a gentleman, and don't snap you up as that Mr. Blue did. Mr. Black, it is quite clear to me, is a man of the world, and a perfect gentleman. Hilloa, what's that? Eh? What! why it's Mr. Black's bell, and he must have almost broken the wire. Sam, Sam! run up to 8, and see what's wanted." Sam did run up to 8, and when he got there, he found Mr. Black lying upon the floor in a fainting fit, and wholly insensible. The alarmed waiter ran down stairs to his master with the news, and the nearest medical man was sent for, but with as little parade as possible, for the hotel-keeper did not wish to alarm all his other guests with the news of the fact that there was a sick person in the house, which he knew was not plesing to many persons, and might induce them to change their quarters. When the medical man came, he was shown up stiars at once, when Mr. Black had been lifted on to a sofa, where he lay without any signs of consciousness at all, much to the horror of the landlord, who began to think he was dead, and that there would be all the disagreeableness of having a corpse in his house. The surgeon felt the pulse and the heart, and then he said, -- "He is in a swoon, but he must be in a desperately weak state." "He looks it, don't he, sir?" "He does indeed. How dreadfully emaciated he is!" By dint of great exertion and the use of stimulants, the surgeon succeded in restoring Mr. Black to consciousness, and when he was so restored, he looked around him with that strange vacant expression which a man wears who has newly come out of a trance and whose memory is in a state of abeyance. "Well, sir, how are you now?" said the surgeon. He made no reply. "I should advise that he be put to bed, landlord," added the medical man, "and something of a warm nourishing quality given to him. I will send him some medicine." Mr. Black now made an effort to speak, and his memory seemed to have come back to him as he said, "I fear I have been a deal of trouble, but the fatigue of travelling fast-- it is that has unnerved me-- I shall be much better to-morrow. Thank you all." "I will call to-morrow" said the surgeon, "and see how you get on, if you please." "I shall be much obliged; I feel myself quite strong enough to retire for the night without assistance, thank you." He made no opposition to the landlord sending him up by Sam some spiced wine, and when it came, he said, -- "I hope no one sleeps near me who will come in late and disturb me, as I require a full and clear night's repose." "Oh no, sir," said Sam, "it's a young lady sir, as belongs to the Lake family sleeps in the next room but one to you, that is to say, No. 9. The very next room aint [sic] occupied at all, sir, to night, so you will be as quiet as if you was in a church, sir." "Thank you, thank you, good night, Samuel." -+- Next Time: The Night Alarm -- A Scene of Confusion. -- Mr. Blue Suspected. +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+ | This Varney the Vampyre e-text was entered by members of the | | Science Fiction Round Table #1 (SFRT1) on the Genie online | | service. | | The Varney Project, a reincarnation of this "penny dreadful" bit | | of fiction, was begun in November of 1993 by James Macdonald and | | should take about four years for re-serialization. | | These chapters are being posted once a week to the Round Table | | Bulletin Board and are also being placed in the Round Table File | | Library. | | For further information concerning Varney e-texts, please send | | email to: | | h.liu@juno.com | +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+ ============================================================================== The Varney Project Chapter 180 Ver 1.00 06/08/1997 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ General notes on this chapter Source: H.Liu entry from the Arno edition, 1970, text is reprint of 1847 edition Drop capital: No Figures in source: 1 Page numbers in source: 736-739 Sections: 1 Approximate number of characters: Number of paragraphs: Comments: Chapter appears mis-numbered as CLXII. Not long after the Lake family had settled in, another carriage arrives at the London Hotel, this time carrying a rude and disagreeable man by the name of Diggory Blue. When alone in his room, this man comments to himself as if he were pursuing someone who had already arrived at the hotel, and that he was currently in disguise. Yet another carriage arrives, this one occupied by a polite, if ill traveler who gives his name as Mr. Black. Mr. Black collapses in his room and a doctor is sent for. We leave this chapter with Mr. Black recovering in his room, and learning from a waiter that Annetta Lake, the beautiful young lady, occupies the room next door. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Modification History Version Date Who What changes made -------- -------- ------------- ---------------------------------- 1.00 06/08/1997 H.Liu Initial gold version, rough proof read. ==================================End of File=================================