Under the comforting beams of this lamp the little boy
would pause until his heart began to thump less wildly after his
deadly perils, and he would turn the handle of the door and walk
into the great hall as demurely as though he had merely traversed
an ordinary everyday passage in broad daylight. It was very
reassuring to see the big hall blazing with light, with the logs
roaring on the open hearth, and grown-ups writing, reading, and
talking unconcernedly, as though unconscious of the awful dangers
lurking within a few yards of them. In that friendly atmosphere,
what with toys and picture-books, the fearful experiences of the
"Passage of Many Terrors" soon faded away, and the return journey
upstairs would be free from alarms, for Catherine, the nursery-
maid, would come to fetch the little boy when his bedtime arrived.
Catherine was fat, freckled, and French. She was also of a very
stolid disposition. She stumped unconcernedly along the "Passage
of Terrors," and any reference to its hidden dangers of robbers,
hunchbacks, bears, and crocodiles only provoked the remark, "Quel
tas de betises!" In order to reassure the little boy, Catherine
took him to view the stuffed crocodile reposing inertly under its
marble slab.
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