Alcove

“ When I went into the alcove to see Mrs. Fairbrother, she was sitting in a chair near this window looking out. I remember the effect of her splendor against the snow sifting down in a steady stream behind her. The pink velvet—the soft green of the curtains on either side—her brilliants—and the snow for a background! Yes, the murderer came in that way. Her figure would be plain to any one outside, and if she moved and the diamond shone—Don’t you see what a probable theory it is? There must be ways by which a desperate man might reach that balcony. ”

“ When in another instant, her hands flew up, and the tray tipped, and the china fell, the revulsion came, and his eyes opened to two facts: the instrument of death was still in his grasp, and the diamond, on whose possession he counted, was gone from his wife’s breast.
It was a horrible moment. Voices could be heard approaching the alcove,—laughing voices that in an instant would take on the note of horror. And the music,—ah! how low it had sunk, as if to give place to the dying murmur he now heard issuing from her lips. But he was a man of iron. ”

“ The alcove we next entered contained another splendid casket and even more golden ornaments and precious gems than we had found in the first. We accounted for the empty jars in the first alcove, which connected with the secret passage, by the pilfering from them by Prince Kai, of which he had told us.
“Wait a minute!” exclaimed Joe, as we eagerly started to examine the next alcove. “If we’re not careful we’re going to lose our bearings in this big place and get lost. Before we wander any further away let’s mark the grating to the alcove we came from when we entered.” ”

“ There was no diamond on her breast, but there was blood.”
A hubbub of disordered sentences seasoned with horrified cries followed this simple description. Then a general movement took place in the direction of the alcove, during which Mr. Durand stooped to my ear and whispered:
“We must get out of this. You are not strong enough to stand such excitement. Don’t you think we can escape by the window over there?”
“What, without wraps and in such a snowstorm?” I protested. “Besides, uncle will be looking for me. ”

“ The alcove serves as a store-room for the cheeses, and for the dairy, while off to one end is sometimes a room for such cattle as are ill or young cattle who must be protected from the chill night air of the mountain. ”

“ Then, to his astonishment, perhaps, I asked if there was not a small door of communication between the passageway back of the alcove and the large central hall.
“Yes,” he replied. “It opens just beyond the fireplace. Three small steps lead to it.”
“I thought so,” I murmured, but more to myself than to him. In my mind I was thinking how a man, if he so wished, could pass from the very heart of this assemblage into the quiet passageway, and so on into the alcove, without attracting very much attention from his fellow guests. ”

“ Was I wrong, then, when I said my miniature ocean contains as many millions of beings as there are stars in the heavens?
You will want to know how these leaves grew, and it is in this way. First a little free swimming animal, a mere living sac provided with lashes, settles down and grows into one little horny alcove, with its live creature inside, which in time sends off from it three to five buds, forming alcoves all round the top and sides of the first one, growing on to it. These again bud out, and you can thus easily understand that, in this way, in time a good-sized leaf is formed. ”

“ I judge that you have not, so I may go on with my suppositions. Mrs. Fairbrother took in this note. She may have expected it and for this reason chose the alcove to sit in, or it may have been a surprise to her. Probably we shall never know the whole truth about it; but what we can know and do, if you are still holding to our compact and viewing this crime in the light of Mr. Durand’s explanations, is that it made a change in her and made her anxious to rid herself of the diamond. It has been decided that the hurried scrawl should read, ‘Take warning. He means to be at the ball. ”

“ This may be compared to the division of a library into alcoves. One of from 10,000 to 20,000 volumes has an alcove for Natural History; from 20,000 to 50,000 it has alcoves for Botany and for Zoölogy; from 50,000 to 100,000 it has alcoves for Birds, Fishes, Insects, Mammals, Reptiles, but it must be either very large or very special before it allows to smaller divisions of Zoölogy separate apartments. On an expansive system it is easy to make new alcoves as they are wanted; a similar multiplication by fission is possible in the successively enlarging editions of a printed catalogue. ”

“ Farther on is the arch, and beyond that arch the side hall and staircase leading to the dressing-rooms. This door, the one in the rear of the alcove, I mean, is hidden from those entering from the main hall by draperies which have been hung over it for this occasion, but it is quite visible from the back passageway, and there can be no doubt that it was by its means the man, whose reflected image you saw, both entered and left the alcove. It is an important fact to establish, and we feel very much obliged to you for the aid you have given us in this matter. ”

“ The various alcoves, containing beds, fitted up with magnificent hangings and curtains of rich brocade, shot with gold or embroidered with the most elaborate devices, were all thrown open, according to custom, separated only from the rooms by light gilt railings; and within these various young seigneurs were lounging, playing at dice or tables, surrounded by a crowd of lookers-on ”

“ Perfuming the throat, when the stomack’s afloat,
With the Fragrant sweet scent of a pot of good ale.
Nor yet the delight that comes to the Sight
To see how it flowers and mantles in graile,
As green as a Leeke, with a smile in the cheek,
The true Orient colour of a pot of good ale.
But I mean the Mind, and the good it doth find,
Not onely the Body so feeble and fraile;
For, Body and Soul may blesse the black bowle,
Since both are beholden to a Pot of good ale. ”

“ The tray and eke a basket light Will serve to spread the malt aright. {50} When your malt is ground in mill, And of hot water has drank its fill, And skill has changed the wort to ale, Then to see you shall not fail Miracles and marvels; Lo! Two candles out of one do grow; Ale makes a layman a good clerk, To one unknown it gives a mark, Ale makes the strong go on all fours, And fill the streets with shouts and roars. The good ale from the malt at length, So draws the barley’s pride and strength, That a royster’s figure-head Needs no dye to make it red. ”

“ WINE, is an agreeable, spirituous, aromatic liquor, prepared by fermenting the juices of those vegetables which contain saccharine matter. Its constituent parts are: 1. Sugar, or the sweet juice, usually termed must, from which the liquor is obtained; 2. Alkohol, or pure spirit, that is disengaged during the vinous fermentation; and 3. Water, which is the most innocuous part of the whole, and tends to moderate its properties, that may otherwise prove hurtful. ”

“ In the matter of wine, as in that of beer, it is perhaps as well to commence with a dictionary description or definition. Ogilvie declares it to be the “fermented juice of the grape, or fruit of the vine.” It is, however, also the juice of certain fruits, prepared in imitation of wine obtained from grapes, but distinguished by naming the source whence it is derived, as currant wine, gooseberry wine, etc.; and a third meaning of wine—a meaning with which we have happily little to do—is the effect of drinking wine in excess, or intoxication. ”

“ It was Arnaud de Villeneuve who employed it for the first time to designate the product of the distillation of wine. But he used it, not as a specific name, but in order to mark the assimilation which he made of it with the product drawn from wine. The elixir of long life of the ancient alchemists had nothing in common with our alcohol. Confusion of the two has led the historians of science into more than one error. ”

“ The dried leaf of the finer grades is bold in make, yielding a dark, heavy liquor, lacking in fragrance, but proving a desirable sort where body and strength is required. The medium grades are rough and open, the liquor, though mostly strong, is often “tarry,” and frequently sour when kept too long, while the lower grades are thin in body and coarse in flavor, having nothing to recommend them but their leaf, which is generally free from dust. ”

“ We extract from Fruits, at least from some, Colour, Taste, &c.
From aromatic Plants, the Distiller draws Spirits, Essences, simple and compound Waters.
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From Spices are procured Essences, or in the Language of the Chemists, Oils, and Perfumes, and also pure Spirits.
From Seeds or Berries are drawn simple Waters, pure Spirits; and from some, as those of Anise, Fennel, and Juniper, Oil.
The Colour of Flowers is extracted by Infusion, and likewise by Digestion in Brandy or Spirit of Wine: The Smell is extracted by Distillation; the simple Water with Brandy or Spirit of Wine. ”

“ Ale, honest English ale, was the general drink, and wine was a luxury of the rich, as may be gathered from the old Anglo-Saxon dialogue, entitled Alfric’s Colloquy, in which a lad, on being asked what his drink is, replies, “Ale, if I have it, water, if I have it not.” To the question why he does not drink wine his answer is, “I am not so rich that I can buy me wine; and wine is not the drink of children or the weak-minded, but of the elders and the wise.” ”

“ For if less of the Armoniack Liquor than is fit be added to a dry matter, all the Liquor so includes it self in the dry matter, as little of the Spirit can ascend in distilling. But if more of the Liquor be poured on than is fit, the ascending spirit will not be efficacious enough, because the vertue of that Subject diffuseth it self too largely into that aboundance of Spirit. Wherefore in all things measure and weight are to be observed. Dry Species, such are Herbs, Roots, Seeds and Flowers, drink up much Water; but Woods not so much, Stones and their like, much less than they. ”

“ We profess to find a perfect commentary on the Pindaric laud of the strongest element in the circumstance of the banks of a river being the locality where the juice of the grape is most delicious, and holding, therefore, that water is strongest because, in a manner, it giveth birth to wine, we also hold it as a sacred element, and consequently most religiously refrain from refreshing our bodies with that sanctified and most undrinkable fluid. ”

“ I have kept these Waters undisturbed in separate well closed Vessels, and observed that in a Year’s Time, they began to appear thick, which Thickness gradually increased every Year, till at length the Liquor grew ropy and mucilaginous. Hence we see, that this Water contains the elementary Water, and presiding Spirit of the Plant; a Spirit small in Bulk, but rich in Virtues, and exhibiting the specific Smell and Taste of the Subject. ”

“ First, This green liquor, only by its external aspect, cheereth the Heart, Brain, and all the vital Spirits, seeing that of all colours there is none superiour to the Green in pleasantness, of which all men are witness, who have overcome the intense cold of a sharp Winter, behold the renewing greenness of the Trees half dead, and Herbs extinct, in the Spring time, with great delight and pleasure, and feel all the Blood in their Body to be renewed and revived. ”

“ By the Excise laws at present existing in this country, the various degrees of strength of brandy, rum, arrack, gin, whiskey, and other spiritous liquors, chiefly composed of little else than spirit of wine, are determined by the quantity of alcohol of a given specific gravity contained in the spiritous liquors of a supposed unknown strength. ”

“ Care must be taken that the glass body be capacious enough, else, when the Spirit of Wine begins to work on the Steel Filings, it will run over. The Body then being placed in Sand, and the Recipient ready at hand, add for each pound of Spirit of Wine in the Glass, one ounce of our Alcahest, which will acuate the spirit of Wine so, as to dissolve the Steel, in which solution, the Sulphur of the Philosophers, or purest Tincture of Mars is set loose, and immediately received by the spirit of Wine, and with it carried up to the Philosophick Heaven. ”

“ No, that is no true Tincture, but the Spirit of Wine is somewhat altered and tinged by the fixt salt. But that Liquor of mine is the true, occult, and inmost Tincture, Virtue, and Life of the Nitre, and is of a golden Nature, but plainly flying and volatile, one drop whereof doth so gild an whole Imperial, as if it were gilt over with Ducket Gold. This Tincture cannot be changed or altered by any contrary Menstruum, be it Corrosive or Urinous, no nor by Aqua-fortis, or Liquor of Salt of Tartar; the like of which is scarce to be found in all nature. ”

“ Chemistry seems to agree with the temperance society, that wine, beer, brandy, gin, whiskey, and rum are alcohol and water, mixed in different proportions, and with some slight differences of flavoring and coloring matter. In all these drinks, teetotalers maintain, alcohol is power, the other ingredients being mere dilution and flavoring. Wine, they assure us, is alcohol and water flavored with grapes; beer is alcohol and water flavored with malt and hops; Bourbon whiskey is alcohol and water flavored with corn. ”

“ Alcohol is made from the sweet juices of fruits by simply allowing them to ferment. Wine, as you know, is fermented grape juice. Cider is fermented apple juice. The strong alcoholic liquor obtained by distilling wine, cider, or any kind of fermented fruit juice, is known as brandy. ”

“ Orange-flowers and those of the Jonquil and Pink of each four Ounces; damask Roses one Pound. Let those be fresh gathered, and immediately put into a Glass Alembic with a Gallon of clean Proof Spirit, and two Quarts of Water. Place the Alembic in Balneum Mariæ, draw off till the Faints begin to rise. You may use Spirit of Wine, instead of Proof Spirit; but it will be absolutely necessary that it be entirely inodorous; for otherwise your Water will fall short of the desired Perfection. ”