Having rapped at the gate, the porter unbolted and kept it half open, placing himself in the gap, like soldiers in the broach, to dispute my passage.

I asked if his lord was stirring?
He answered with a surly aspect, "No." "At what hour does he commonly rise ?" said I."Sometimes sooner, sometimes later," said he, closing the door upon me by degrees.

I then told him I was come by his lordship's own appointment, to which intimation this Cerberus replied, "I have received no orders about the matter," and was upon the point of shutting me out, when I recollected myself all of a sudden, and slipping a crown into his hand, begged as a favour that he would inquire, and let me know whether or not the earl was up.

The grim janitor relented at the touch of my money, which he took with all the indifference of a taxgatherer, and showed me into a parlour, where, he said, I might amuse myself till such time as his lord should be awake.

I had not sat ten minutes in this place, when a footman entered, and, without speaking, started at me; I interpreted this piece of his behaviour into, "Pray, sir, what is your business ?" and asked the same question I had put to the porter, when I accosted him first.