3. CHAPTER III.
THE KEY.
“In this world,” says a very profound thinker, “there are no
`great' or `small' events. The smallest in appearance are often the
most important.”
Colonel Hartright, on the departure of his guest, sat down, leaned
his elbow on the table, reflected for half-an-hour, knitting his brows
as he did so, and then, with a heavy sigh, for he had been thinking
of his dead brother, prepared to retire.
He looked at the plain tavern-bed with an expression of marked
distaste; but there was plainly no choice in the matter. He was
weary with his long ride and from the exhausting emotions of the
day, and proceeded to take off his clothes—in a deliberate and dignified
way, as became a personage who never forgot that he was a
great landed proprietor. His coat was placed on the back of a
chair; his voluminous neckcloth was deposited upon the pine table,
above which was a cracked mirror; and then Colonel Hartright
removed his long waistcoat, over which wandered a complicated
figure worked in gold thread.
As he placed the waistcoat upon the chair beside the coat, a slight
tinkling noise was heard—or rather was not heard. It was the key
taken from the hand of his dead brother by the old physician, and
delivered to him at Oakhill, on that morning. Colonel Hartright
had been scarcely conscious, in the midst of his distress, of having
received it; had placed it in the pocket of his waistcoat, and now,
in depositing that garment upon the chair, had done so in such a
manner that the pocket was turned downward, from which it resulted
that the key slipped over the silken lining, fell out upon the
drugget-carpet beneath the chair, and, in falling, made so slight a
noise that it did not attract Colonel Hartright's attention. That
gentleman then extinguished his light, and was soon afterward
asleep.
On the next morning the landlord of the Raleigh provided his
guests with an early breakfast; the coach rolled to the door; and
just as the sun was rising, the two gentlemen got into the vehicle
and set out for Oakhill, conversing gravely as they went along.
The key lay under the chair where it had fallen, half-concealed
in a fold of the drugget.
