Page:Headlong Hall - Peacock (1816).djvu/20



Headlong, in the mean while, was quadripartite in his locality; that is to say, he was superintending the operations in four scenes of action; namely, the cellar—the library—the picture-gallery—and the dining-room, preparing for the reception of his philosophical and dilettanti visitors. His myrmidon on this occasion was a little red-nosed butler, whom nature seemed to have cast in the genuine mould of an antique Silenus, and who waddled about the house after his master, wiping his forehead and panting for breath, while the latter bounced from room to room like a cracker, and was indefatigable in his requisitions for the proximity of his vinous Achates, whose advice and co-operation he