Ill satisfied with the expedition,
but determined not to leave her sister at such a crisis, Lady
Bothwell accompanied Lady Forester through more than one obscure
street and lane, the servant walking before, and acting as their
guide. At length he suddenly turned into a narrow court, and
knocked at an arched door which seemed to belong to a building of
some antiquity. It opened, though no one appeared to act as
porter; and the servant, stepping aside from the entrance,
motioned the ladies to enter. They had no sooner done so than it
shut, and excluded their guide. The two ladies found themselves
in a small vestibule, illuminated by a dim lamp, and having, when
the door was closed, no communication with the external light or
air. The door of an inner apartment, partly open, was at the
farther side of the vestibule.
"We must not hesitate now, Jemima," said Lady Bothwell, and
walked forwards into the inner room, where, surrounded by books,
maps, philosophical utensils, and other implements of peculiar
shape and appearance, they found the man of art.
There was nothing very peculiar in the Italian's appearance. He
had the dark complexion and marked features of his country,
seemed about fifty years old, and was handsomely but plainly
dressed in a full suit of black clothes, which was then the
universal costume of the medical profession.
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