There was a noise of chains and keys. Thefront door opened，and I went into a passage. Thedoor closed quickly behind me.
“Go into the kitc he n a nd touch nothing，”saidthe man’s voice. I went for ward in the dark，andreached the room.
The fire was burning more brightly now and itslight shone on the furniture. It showed me a cornercupboard. There were also some big chests of woodalong the wall. All had locks on them. There was achair and a table. On the table there was a meal - aplate of porridge，a spoon，and a cup of weak beer.
Besides these things，and a few dishes，there was nofurniture in that great empty room.
When the man came in，I saw a thin，bent fellow.
His shoulders were narrow and his face was thecolour of clay. He was between fifty and seventyyears old. He had no coat or waistcoat on，but waswearing night clothes over an old shirt . He ought to
一 陣鎖鏈聲和鑰匙聲傳了出來。前門打開了，我走進了一條走廊。門隨即關上了。
“到廚房去，可不要碰裏麵的東西。”那人說。我摸黑朝前走去，進了廚房。
此刻爐火燒得旺了一點，火光映在廚房裏的家具上。我借著火光看見一個放在牆角的碗櫃。牆邊還擺著幾隻上了鎖的大箱子。廚房裏有一把椅子和一張桌子。桌子上擺著晚餐--一盤稀飯，一把勺子，還有一杯淡啤酒。除過前麵講過的那些東西和幾個盤子以外，那個又大又空的房間再沒有別的家具了。
那人走了進來。他是個瘦子，背有點駝，肩膀很窄，麵如土色，年紀大約在五十至七十歲之間。他沒有穿上衣或坎肩，隻穿了一件舊襯衫，外麵罩著睡衣，頭發也好長時間
Lave visited a barber long ago. He watched me allthe time，but he never looked straight in my face.
This troubled me very much.
沒有理了。他一直在觀察我，可隻是斜著眼偷看，使我感到很不舒服。
Who was he？A lazy old servant，in cllange ofthe house？I could not guess.
“Are you hungry？”he asked.“Ca n you c a t tha tbit of p orridge ？”
“It’s your own me a l. isn ’t it?”I replied.
“Oh，”he said.“I don ’t ne e d it. But I’ll ta ke thebe e r ，be c a us e it ma ke s my cough be tte r.”
He drank. Then suddenly he held out hishand.
“Le t me s e e the le tte r ，”he said.
“The le tte r is not for you ，”I answered.“It is fo rMr Ba lfour.”
“We ll，a n d who am I？”he said.“Give me Ale xande r’s le tte r.”