positivecheerfulness" target="_blank" title="n.高兴，愉快">cheerfulness. It was only in his presence that

Catherine felt the smallest fatigue from her journey;
and even then, even in moments of languor or restraint,

a sense of general happiness preponderated, and she could
think of her friends in Bath without one wish of being

with them.
The night was stormy; the wind had been rising at

intervals the whole afternoon; and by the time the party
broke up, it blew and rained violently" target="_blank" title="ad.强暴地；猛烈地">violently. Catherine, as she

crossed the hall, listened to the tempest with sensations
of awe; and, when she heard it rage round a corner of the

ancient building and close with sudden fury a distant door,
felt for the first time that she was really in an abbey.

Yes, these were characteristic sounds; they brought to her
recollection a countlessvariety of dreadful situations

and horrid scenes, which such buildings had witnessed,
and such storms ushered in; and most heartily did

she rejoice in the happier circumstances attending
her entrance within walls so solemn! She had nothing

to dread from midnight assassins or drunken gallants.
Henry had certainly been only in jest in what he had told

her that morning. In a house so furnished, and so guarded,
she could have nothing to explore or to suffer, and might

go to her bedroom as securely as if it had been her own
chamber at Fullerton. Thus wisely fortifying her mind,

as she proceeded upstairs, she was enabled, especially on
perceiving that Miss Tilney slept only two doors from her,

to enter her room with a tolerably stout heart; and her
spirits were immediately assisted by the cheerful blaze

of a wood fire. "How much better is this," said she,
as she walked to the fender--"how much better to find a fire

ready lit, than to have to wait shivering in the cold
till all the family are in bed, as so many poor girls

have been obliged to do, and then to have a faithful old
servant frightening one by coming in with a faggot! How

glad I am that Northanger is what it is! If it had been
like some other places, I do not know that, in such a night

as this, I could have answered for my courage: but now,
to be sure, there is nothing to alarm one."

She looked round the room. The window curtains seemed
in motion. It could be nothing but the violence of the

wind penetrating through the divisions of the shutters;
and she stepped boldly forward, carelessly humming a tune,

to assure herself of its being so, peeped courageously
behind each curtain, saw nothing on either low window seat

to scare her, and on placing a hand against the shutter,
felt the strongest conviction of the wind's force.

A glance at the old chest, as she turned away from
this examination, was not without its use; she scorned

the causeless fears of an idle fancy, and began with a
most happy indifference to prepare herself for bed.

"She should take her time; she should not hurry herself;
she did not care if she were the last person up in the house.

But she would not make up her fire; that would seem cowardly,
as if she wished for the protection of light after she

were in bed." The fire therefore died away, and Catherine,
having spent the best part of an hour in her arrangements,

was beginning to think of stepping into bed, when, on giving
a parting glance round the room, she was struck by the

appearance of a high, old-fashioned black cabinet, which,
though in a situation conspicuous enough, had never caught

her notice before. Henry's words, his description of the
ebony cabinet which was to escape her observation at first,

immediately rushed across her; and though there could
be nothing really in it, there was something whimsical,

it was certainly a very remarkable coincidence! She
took her candle and looked closely at the cabinet.

It was not absolutely ebony and gold; but it was japan,
black and yellow japan of the handsomest kind; and as she

held her candle, the yellow had very much the effect
of gold. The key was in the door, and she had a strange

fancy to look into it; not, however, with the smallest
expectation of finding anything, but it was so very odd,

after what Henry had said. In short, she could not
sleep till she had examined it. So, placing the candle

with great caution on a chair, she seized the key with a
very tremulous hand and tried to turn it; but it resisted

her utmost strength. Alarmed, but not discouraged,
she tried it another way; a bolt flew, and she believed

herself successful; but how strangely mysterious!
The door was still immovable. She paused a moment

in breathless" target="_blank" title="a.屏息的">breathless wonder. The wind roared down the chimney,
the rain beat in torrents against the windows, and everything

seemed to speak the awfulness of her situation.
To retire to bed, however, unsatisfied on such a point,

would be vain, since sleep must be impossible with the
consciousness of a cabinet so mysteriously closed in her

immediate vicinity. Again, therefore, she applied herself
to the key, and after moving it in every possible way

for some instants with the determined celerity of hope's
last effort, the door suddenly yielded to her hand: her

heart leaped with exultation at such a victory, and having
thrown open each folding door, the second being secured

only by bolts of less wonderful construction than the lock,
though in that her eye could not discern anything unusual,

a double range of small drawers appeared in view,
with some larger drawers above and below them; and in

the centre, a small door, closed also with a lock and key,
secured in all probability a cavity of importance.

Catherine's heart beat quick, but her courage did
not fail her. With a cheek flushed by hope, and an eye

straining with curiosity, her fingers grasped the handle
of a drawer and drew it forth. It was entirely empty.

With less alarm and greater eagerness she seized a second,
a third, a fourth; each was equally empty. Not one was

left unsearched, and in not one was anything found.
Well read in the art of concealing a treasure, the possibility

of false linings to the drawers did not escape her,
and she felt round each with anxious acuteness in vain.

The place in the middle alone remained now unexplored;
and though she had "never from the first had the smallest

idea of finding anything in any part of the cabinet,
and was not in the least disappointed at her ill success

thus far, it would be foolish not to examine it thoroughly
while she was about it." It was some time however before

she could unfasten the door, the same difficulty occurring
in the management of this inner lock as of the outer;

but at length it did open; and not vain, as hitherto,
was her search; her quick eyes directly fell on a roll

of paper pushed back into the further part of the cavity,
apparently for concealment, and her feelings at that

moment were indescribable. Her heart fluttered,
her knees trembled, and her cheeks grew pale. She seized,

with an unsteady hand, the precious manuscript, for half
a glance sufficed to ascertain written characters;

and while she acknowledged with awful sensations this
striking exemplification of what Henry had foretold,

resolved instantly to peruse every line before she attempted
to rest.

The dimness of the light her candle emitted made
her turn to it with alarm; but there was no danger

of its sudden extinction; it had yet some hours to burn;
and that she might not have any greater difficulty

in distinguishing the writing than what its ancient date
might occasion, she hastily snuffed it. Alas! It was snuffed