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Deathshead was always grinning, not a ghastly smile, but the grin of a comic mask; and disturbed the echoes of the hall with so much unhallowed laughter, that Mr Glowry gave him his discharge.
Mr Glowry used to say that his house was no better than a spacious kennel, for every one in it led the life of a dog.
Scythrop continued entreating Mr Glowry to leave them alone; but the old gentleman was obstinate, and would not go. 'I suppose, after all, said Mr Glowry maliciously, 'it is only a phaenomenon in acoustics, and this young lady is a reflection of sound from concave surfaces. Some one tapped at the door: Mr Glowry opened it, and Mr Hilary entered.
The lady's fortune disappeared in the first year: love, by a natural consequence, disappeared in the second: the Irishman himself, by a still more natural consequence, disappeared in the third. Mr Glowry had allowed his sister an annuity, and she had lived in retirement with her only daughter, whom, at her death, which had recently happened, she commended to the care of Mrs Hilary.
'Ah! said Mr Glowry, 'you are a happy man, and in all your afflictions you can console yourself with a joke, let it be ever so bad, provided you crack it yourself. I should be very happy to laugh with you, if it would give you any satisfaction; but, really, at present, my heart is so sad, that I find it impossible to levy a contribution on my muscles.
Scythrop was not exactly prepared for this decisive step; but he could only stammer out, 'Really, sir, you are too good; and Mr Glowry departed to bring Mr Hilary to ratify the act.
He declared that, what with family quarrels in the morning, and ghosts at night, he could get neither sleep nor peace; and that the agitation was too much for his nerves: though Mr Glowry assured him that the ghost was only poor Crow walking in his sleep, and that the shroud and bloody turban were a sheet and a red nightcap. 'Well, sir? 'Is that all? 'No.
Mr Glowry returned with Mr Hilary, who was delighted at the prospect of so advantageous an establishment for his orphan niece, of whom he considered himself in some manner the guardian, and nothing remained, as Mr Glowry observed, but to fix the day. Marionetta blushed, and was silent.
Mr Glowry was much surprised, on occasionally visiting Scythrop's tower, to find the door always locked, and to be kept sometimes waiting many minutes for admission: during which he invariably heard a heavy rolling sound like that of a ponderous mangle, or of a waggon on a weighing-bridge, or of theatrical thunder.
'Locked up or at large, said Mr Glowry, 'the result is the same: their minds are always locked up, and vanity and interest keep the key. I speak feelingly, Scythrop. 'I am sorry for it, sir, said Scythrop. 'But how is it that their minds are locked up?
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