The Dead Alive — Wilkie Collins

His only unmarried daughter he had long since been left a widower was in the room in attendance on her father She was a melancholy middle aged woman without visible attractions of any sort one of those persons who appear to accept the obligation of living under protest as a burden which they would never have consented to bear if they had only been consulted first We three had a dreary little interview in a parlor of bare walls and then I was permitted to go upstairs and unpack my portmanteau in my own room ldquo Supper will be at nine oclock sir rdquo said Miss Meadowcroft She pronounced those words as if ldquo supperrdquo was a form of domestic offense habitually committed by the men and endured by the women I followed the groom up to my room not over well pleased with my first experience of the farm No Naomi and no romance thus far My room was clean oppressively clean I quite longed to see a little dust somewhere My library was limited to the Bible and the Prayer book My view from the window showed me a dead flat in a partial state of cultivation fading sadly from view in the waning light Above the head of my spruce white bed hung a scroll bearing a damnatory quotation from Scripture in emblazoned letters of red and black