Excerpt from Paul Periwinkle, Vol. 1 of 3: Or the Pressgang "Sir Job! - Sir Job Periwinkle! - For heaven's sake get up, Sir Job! Here's murder in the house!" vehemently exclaimed the old butler, knocking long and loudly at his master's door. The grey twilight of a December's day was just breaking, as the old domestic, half dressed and wholly frightened, stood shivering in the long oaken gallery, endeavouring to make his voice penetrate through the double door of Sir Job's chamber. It was in truth no easy matter. Fashioned in the same substantial manner as the rest of the old Grange, which had been built by a loyal officer of Elizabeth's court, the thin voice of the caller appeared unable to arouse the sleeper within, whose slumbers were at no time of the lightest. In addition to this difficulty, the old man seemed to labour under some apprehension cf disturbing others for whom his summons was not intended; still, as he repeated it, his eyes glanced fearfully round the grim-looking corridor, and his head was stretched out in that peculiar attitude which marks the act of listening. Nothing, however, appeared to move insight, unless it was the fitful lifting of some of the old pictures, which, covered with the smoke and dirt of a century and a half, looked like the portraits of the doomed, as they borrowed a degree of life from the sudden gusts of the northeast wind that shook the walls on which they hung, and howled round the many angles of the house outside. When the butler found that his efforts were ineffectual to gain attention, he took a few steps to and fro before the closed door, wringing his hands, as if uncertain what to do, he then repeated the summons once again, and finding it unanswered, glided noiselessly to a recess where one of the old fashioned windows projected, in the middle of the building. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.