CHAPTER II 15
They went , shutting the door , and locking it behind them .
The red-room was a square chamber , very seldom slept in , I might say never , indeed , unless when a chance influx of visitors at Gateshead Hall rendered it necessary to turn to account all the accommodation it contained : yet it was one of the largest and stateliest chambers in the mansion . A bed supported on massive pillars of mahogany , hung with curtains of deep red damask , stood out like a tabernacle in the centre ; the two large windows , with their blinds always drawn down , were half shrouded in festoons and falls of similar drapery ; the carpet was red ; the table at the foot of the bed was covered with a crimson cloth ; the walls were a soft fawn colour with a blush of pink in it ; the wardrobe , the toilet-table , the chairs were of darkly polished old mahogany . Out of these deep surrounding shades rose high , and glared white , the piled-up mattresses and pillows of the bed , spread with a snowy Marseilles counterpane . Scarcely less prominent was an ample cushioned easy-chair near the head of the bed , also white , with a footstool before it ; and looking , as I thought , like a pale throne .
This room was chill , because it seldom had a fire ; it was silent , because remote from the nursery and kitchen ; solemn , because it was known to be so seldom entered . The house-maid alone came here on Saturdays , to wipe from the mirrors and the furniture a week ' s quiet dust : and Mrs . Reed herself , at far intervals , visited it to review the contents of a certain secret drawer in the wardrobe , where were stored divers parchments , her jewel-casket , and a miniature of her deceased husband ; and in those last words lies the secret of the red-room -- the spell which kept it so lonely in spite of its grandeur .
Mr . Reed had been dead nine years : it was in this chamber he breathed his last ; here he lay in state ; hence his coffin was borne by the undertaker ' s men ; and , since that day , a sense of dreary consecration had guarded it from frequent intrusion .
My seat , to which Bessie and the bitter Miss Abbot had left me riveted , was a low ottoman near the marble chimney-piece ; the bed rose before me ; to my right hand there was the high , dark wardrobe , with subdued , broken