Roundabout Papers - Penn State University

Thackerayvouch. I have had messages from the dead; and notonly from the dead, but from people who never existedat all. I own I am in a state of much bewilderment: but,if you please, will proceed with my simple, my artlessstory.Well, then. We passed from Shepherd’s Inn intoHolborn, and looked for a while at Woodgate’s bric-abracshop, which I never can pass without delaying atthe windows—indeed, if I were going to be hung, I wouldbeg the cart to stop, and let me have one look more atthat delightful omnium gatherum. And passingWoodgate’s, we come to Gale’s little shop, “No. 47,” whichis also a favorite haunt of mine.Mr. Gale happened to be at his door, and as we exchangedsalutations, “Mr. Pinto,” I said, “will you liketo see a real curiosity in this curiosity shop? Step intoMr. Gale’s little back room.”In that little back parlor there are Chinese gongs; thereare old Saxe and Sevres plates; there is Furstenberg,Carl Theodor, Worcester, Amstel, Nankin and otherjimcrockery. And in the corner what do you think thereis? There is an actual Guillotine. If you doubt me, goand see—Gale, High Holborn, No. 47. It is a slim instrument,much slighter than those which they make now;—some nine feet high, narrow, a pretty piece of upholsteryenough. There is the hook over which the ropeused to play which unloosened the dreadful axe above;and look! dropped into the orifice where the head usedto go—there is the axe itself, all rusty, with a greatnotch in the blade.As Pinto looked at it—Mr. Gale was not in the room, Irecollect; happening to have been just called out by acustomer who offered him three pound fourteen andsixpence for a blue Shepherd in pate tendre,—Mr. Pintogave a little start, and seemed crispe for a moment.Then he looked steadily towards one of those great porcelainstools which you see in gardens—and—it seemedto me—I tell you I won’t take my affidavit—I may havebeen maddened by the six glasses I took of that pinkelixir—I may have been sleep-walking: perhaps am as Iwrite now—I may have been under the influence ofthat astounding medium into whose hands I had fallen—215