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Chapter XXVII
When they had travelled slowly forward for some short distance, Nell
ventured to steal a look round the caravan and observe it more
closely. One half of it - that moiety in which the comfortable
proprietress was then seated - was carpeted, and so partitioned off at
the further end as to accommodate a sleeping-place, constructed after
the fashion of a berth on board ship, which was shaded, like the little
windows, with fair white curtains, and looked comfortable enough,
though by what kind of gymnastic exercise the lady of the caravan
ever contrived to get into it, was an unfathomable mystery. The other
half served for a kitchen, and was fitted up with a stove whose small
chimney passed through the roof. It held also a closet or larder,
several chests, a great pitcher of water, and a few cooking-utensils
and articles of crockery. These latter necessaries hung upon the walls,
which, in that portion of the establishment devoted to the lady of the
caravan, were ornamented with such gayer and lighter decorations as
a triangle and a couple of well-thumbed tambourines.
The lady of the caravan sat at one window in all the pride and poetry
of the musical instruments, and little Nell and her grandfather sat at
the other in all the humility of the kettle and saucepans, while the
machine jogged on and shifted the darkening prospect very slowly. At
first the two travellers spoke little, and only in whispers, but as they
grew more familiar with the place they ventured to converse with
greater freedom, and talked about the country through which they
were passing, and the different objects that presented themselves,
until the old man fell asleep; which the lady of the caravan observing,
invited Nell to come and sit beside her.
'Well, child,' she said, 'how do you like this way of travelling?'
Nell replied that she thought it was very pleasant indeed, to which the
lady assented in the case of people who had their spirits. For herself,
she said, she was troubled with a lowness in that respect which
required a constant stimulant; though whether the aforesaid
stimulant was derived from the suspicious bottle of which mention
has been already made or from other sources, she did not say.
'
That's the happiness of you young people,' she continued. 'You don't
know what it is to be low in your feelings. You always have your
appetites too, and what a comfort that is.'
Nell thought that she could sometimes dispense with her own appetite
very conveniently; and thought, moreover, that there was nothing
either in the lady's personal appearance or in her manner of taking
tea, to lead to the conclusion that her natural relish for meat and
drink had at all failed her. She silently assented, however, as in duty
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