Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 3).djvu/350

 There was nothing remarkable about the porter, and Isez believed himself to be in the hôtel of some noble or wealthy gentleman.

"Monsieur is expected on the first floor, if he will give himself the trouble to mount," said the porter, indicating the staircase.

Isez went up. Facing him was a door, half open, through which light shone; he passed by it into an ante-chamber hung with white. It was singular, even startling.

The walls were covered with white velvet; chairs and sofas were of the same material; the carpet was of plain thick white wool, and every step which Isez made left a deep depression. A small table of white wood supported a white china lamp which burnt but feebly. Of other furniture there was none.

A lackey was in this room, a young man tall and handsome, clothed entirely in white—coat, waistcoat, breeches, stockings, shoes, all in dead-white material; his hair was thickly powdered and carefully curled, and tied with a white silk bow; white lace ruffles at his neck and wrists; his skin was of a peculiar white tint which struck the professional eye of Isez as being morbid and diseased.

"M. Isez," he said, coming to meet the surgeon, "be so good as to wipe your shoes." And he handed him a linen duster which lay beside the lamp.

"It is not neces sary," answered Isez; "I have only just got out of my chair, and my shoes are not muddy."

"Nevertheless," returned the lackey, "it must be done as a precaution. Everything in this house is of extreme cleanli-ness, and you must be so good as to wipe your shoes."

Isez shrugged his shoulders and obeyed. He rubbed his shoes with the duster, and showed the man that hardly a speck of dust came off on the cloth.

The servant bowed gravely. "This way," said he, moving down the narrow room, towards a door opposite to that by which the surgeon had entered.

Through this door Isez passed into a larger apartment, hung with white silk. It contained handsome furniture of white wood upholstered in white silk. The carpet was of roughly-woven silk. There were several marble tables; china vases, lace curtains, alabaster candlesticks, and various other ornamental articles decorated the room; and Isez saw at one glance that that though all was of the same uniform shade of white, yet all was in the highest degree handsome and expensive.

A second lackey approached, also a good-looking but pallid young man. He, too, was powdered and curled, and clothed in white; but whereas the first servant had worn cloth, this man's garments were of thick ribbed silk. By this time Isez was growing somewhat accustomed to the dazzling white tones all around him, and also to the air of mystery which pervaded