Yet it was an enormous door, and, being opened, revealed
a still larger closet, lined with green velvet and fitted with shelves
from floor to ceiling.
Here shone, in all their glory, the old plate of two good families:
that is to say, half the old plate of the Bassetts, and all the old
plate of the Goodwyns, from whom came Highmore to Richard Bassett
through his mother Ruperta Goodwyn, so named after her grandmother; so
named after her aunt; so named after her godmother; so named after her
father, Prince Rupert, cavalier, chemist, glass-blower, etc., etc.
The wall seemed ablaze with suns and moons, for many of the chased
goblets, plates, and dishes were silver-gilt: none of your filmy
electro-plate, but gold laid on thick, by the old mercurial process, in
days when they that wrought in precious metals were honest--for want of
knowing how to cheat.
Glued to the pane, gloating on this constellation of gold suns and
silver moons, and trembling with Bohemian excitement, reckless Reginald
heard not a stealthy step upon the grass behind him.
He had trusted to a fact in optics, forgetting the doctrine of shadows.
The Scotch servant saw from a pantry window the shadow of a cap
projected on the grass, with a face, and part of a body. She stepped
out, and got upon the grass.
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