Doorkeeper

“ While waiting for the doorkeeper, Carpentaria scrutinized attentively the wheels of the vehicle; those wheels, even on his first visit, had put an idea into his head. Then the doorkeeper arrived, not quite as spruce and perfect as a doorkeeper ought to be.
“No one can enter this garage except under your observation?” Carpentaria asked him.
“No one,” said the doorkeeper, positively.
“But you don’t keep such a careful eye on the people who go out?”
“Naturally not, sir. They can’t go out till they’ve been in, and if they’ve been in they’re all right.” ”

“ How could any doorkeeper be more faithful to his duty? But in the doorkeeper's character there are also other features which might be very useful for those who seek entry to the law, and when he hinted at some possibility in the future it always seemed to make it clear that he might even go beyond his duty. There's no denying he's a little simple-minded, and that makes him a little conceited. ”

“ The doorkeeper went back to the door.
"Walk in, sir!"
"Good!" said Drakesbill to himself. "Now I can see how the folks eat at the King's table."
"This way, this way!" said the doorkeeper. "Now step through that gate. There you are!"
"What! In the poultry yard? How? What?"
How vexed the little fellow was! And no wonder.
"Just wait," he said at last. "I think I'll show them a thing or two. Quack, quack, quack, when shall I get my money back?"
But turkeys and chickens are queer things, as you know, and think themselves a good deal better than other folks. ”

“ Where’s my weskit, boss?”
“Where’s your manners?” demanded the doorkeeper sharply.
“I don’t trouble about manners,” said Bobbie; “people ’ave to take me as they find me. If they don’t like it, they can jolly well lump it.”
“They’ll lump you if you are not careful,” warned the doorkeeper. “Rub your head again with the towel, and look sharp about it.”
“They’ll look silly if they come interferin’ ’long o’ me,” said Bobbie, with the towel over his head. “I ain’t like a kid.” ”

“ Doorkeeper. He got back from Bordeaux last night. Fagged out he looked.
Recorder [loftily] A Mauleon magistrate is always fatigued when he returns from Bordeaux!
Doorkeeper. Why?
Recorder [after a pause] I do not know.
Doorkeeper. It's the Irissary murder that has brought him here so early.
Recorder. Probably. [While speaking he arranges his cup, saucer, sugar basin, etc., in a drawer. He then goes to his own place, the desk at the back. Mouzon enters. The doorkeeper pretends to have completed some errand and leaves the room. The recorder rises, with a low bow] Good-morning, your worship. ”

“ He beckons to him, as he's no longer able to raise his stiff body. The doorkeeper has to bend over deeply as the difference in their sizes has changed very much to the disadvantage of the man. 'What is it you want to know now?' asks the doorkeeper, 'You're insatiable.' 'Everyone wants access to the law,' says the man, 'how come, over all these years, no- one but me has asked to be let in?' The doorkeeper can see the man's come to his end, his hearing has faded, and so, so that he can be heard, he shouts to him: 'Nobody else could have got in this way, as this entrance was meant only for you. ”

“ In front of the law there is a doorkeeper. A man from the countryside comes up to the door and asks for entry. But the doorkeeper says he can't let him in to the law right now. The man thinks about this, and then he asks if he'll be able to go in later on. 'That's possible,' says the doorkeeper, 'but not now'. The gateway to the law is open as it always is, and the doorkeeper has stepped to one side, so the man bends over to try and see in. When the doorkeeper notices this he laughs and says, 'If you're tempted give it a try, try and go in even though I say you can't. Careful though: ”

“ I'm powerful. And I'm only the lowliest of all the doormen. But there's a doorkeeper for each of the rooms and each of them is more powerful than the last. It's more than I can stand just to look at the third one.' The man from the country had not expected difficulties like this, the law was supposed to be accessible for anyone at any time, he thinks, but now he looks more closely at the doorkeeper in his fur coat, sees his big hooked nose, his long thin tartar-beard, and he decides it's better to wait until he has permission to enter. ”

“ Whether they're right or not, you have to concede that his simplicity and arrogance, however little they show, do weaken his function of guarding the entrance, they are defects in the doorkeeper's character. You also have to consider that the doorkeeper seems to be friendly by nature, he isn't always just an official. ”

“ The doorkeeper is rather elderly, and somewhat snuffy for a bachelor; but he is very fond of informing the visitors of the stage-door that he has never sacrificed his liberty at the shrine of Hymen. He thinks, perhaps, that they might scruple to give their messages to a married man. ”

“ A Meek Man (to Doorkeeper, after standing in hopeful silence for three-quarters of an hour) . I suppose there'll be a chance of getting in presently, eh?
The Doorkeeper (placidly) . None whatever, Sir.
The M.M. But they'll be rising for luncheon in an hour or so, and some will be coming out then, surely?
Doork. Not many; them as are in stays in, mostly.
The M.M. (with a sudden recollection that he is acquainted with one of the Counsel engaged in the case) . Couldn't you take in my card to Mr. TANFIELD? I'm sure he'll do anything he could for me. ”

“ The second pylon (is named) : the lady of heaven, mistress of the world, the consuming one, the lady of mankind, who counts the human beings. The name of the doorkeeper is: Meshept.
The third pylon: the lady of altars, rich in offerings, with whom all the gods are gathered, on the day when they sail to Abydos. The name of the doorkeeper is: the anointer.
The fourth pylon: she who holds the knives, the mistress of the world, who destroys the enemies of the god whose heart is motionless, who gives advice, who is free from impurity. The name of the doorkeeper is:is: the bull. ”

“ The doorkeeper gives him a stool and lets him sit down to one side of the gate. He sits there for days and years. ”

“ No small degree of extravagance is usual in the employment of servants. In every house owned by a person of ample means, for instance, there is a doorkeeper who sits the whole day on a chair at the entrance to open the open hall door. ”

“ A poor old man who had for some time filled the situation of doorkeeper to our quarter, had long 155been ill, and had been assisted by several gentlemen in procuring some necessary comforts. One day my brother received a letter from the Sheykh of the quarter, telling him that poor Mohammad the doorkeeper had received mercy at the sixth hour of the preceding night, and expressing a hope that he would give them the price of his shroud. ”

“ Everyone who knocks shall receive a ready response, the doorkeeper welcoming him with thanks to God for his coming and giving him his blessing. If he needs an assistant he shall be given the services of one of the younger brothers. ”

“ I may possibly ask for the position of palace doorkeeper. My voyage has been a singular mixture of good and ill fortune. As far as regards interest and material, the fortune has been admirable; as far as regards time, money, and impediments of all kinds, from squalls and calms to rotten masts and sprung spars, simply detestable. I hope you will be interested to hear of two volumes on the wing. The cruise itself, you are to know, will make a big volume with appendices ”

“ I hope our doorkeepers are instructed and understand, so that they will keep order, and also be still themselves. I have noticed sometimes that our doorkeepers and policemen will make more disturbance in a congregation than the people do. ”

“ This tall stout man in black is the door-keeper. ‘Any room?’ ‘Not an inch—two or three dozen gentlemen waiting down-stairs on the chance of somebody’s going out.’ Pull out your purse—‘Are you quite sure there’s no room?’—‘I’ll go and look,’ replies the door-keeper, with a wistful glance at your purse, ‘but I’m afraid there’s not.’ He returns, and with real feeling assures you that it is morally impossible to get near the gallery. ”

“ How was the door-keeper to get his employer’s money off him? By selling him a safe. Our Little Man then divulged that he was in reality a commercial traveller in safes; if the door-keeper would get his employer to buy one of his safes the Little Man would forgive him his debt by way of commission. He felt sure that the Head of the Office had a weakness for precautions. The door-keeper, now enthusiastic, said he should just think he had! The Little Man felt he was getting warm. ”

“ Five minutes after, the door-keeper again appeared: all eyes were fixed on the door, and I," said Beauchamp, "shared the general expectation and anxiety. Behind the door-keeper walked a woman enveloped in a large veil, which completely concealed her. ”

“ Perfect order does not only mean that the bed is neatly made, the floor clean and all the furniture dusted; soap, towels, matches, candles and glasses in their places, but everything must be in perfect working order. Let the housekeeper's inspection begin then with the door. The lock must be in order, and the key work properly. It is embarrassing to the clerk to have to listen of a morning to such complaints as "my door would not lock, and I was compelled to push the dresser in front of it to insure safety." But this "kick" is often heard in first-class houses. ”

“ Can we eat a doormat? Or sleep under a door-mat? Or sit on a door-mat and sledge home over the snow on it, you exasperating rodent?"
"Do—you—mean—to—say," cried the excited Rat, "that this door-mat doesn't tell you anything?"
"Really, Rat," said the Mole, quite pettishly, "I think we'd had enough of this folly. Who ever heard of a door-mat telling anyone anything? They simply don't do it. They are not that sort at all. Door-mats know their place." ”

“ The porter who opened the door for us is a model of a Spanish official. Too proud to be a door-keeper, and, with nothing else to do, he would impress even a stranger with the idea that he was born with a higher destiny than to tend a gate. ”

“ Folks don't jump from second-story windows in broad daylight, and as to leaving by the doors, the front door closes with such a slam all the house can hear it from top to bottom, and as for the back-door, no one that goes out of that can get clear of the yard without going by the kitchen window, and no one can go by our kitchen window without the cook's a-seeing of them, that I can just swear to. ”

“ He had to come back here with the Cadger and Gannet in a little while, and he dared not risk anything that would imperil his rôle in the eyes of the underworld. Even a number of people coming and going from the house, if they acted naturally, entering by the door as though they had a right to enter, would never attract the slightest notice from either neighbors or passers-by. That was what doors were for! But a man leaping out through one of the front windows would invite certain attention, suspicion, and instant investigation. ”

“ The pages were photographed; the Little Man returned to the door-keeper with the strong box, now capable of being re-locked; the door-keeper returned to the office and put back the strong box, locked, into the safe, which he also locked, and was wiping the sweat off his forehead and congratulating himself that no one was the worse, when he was startled to find a policeman had been watching him all the time. ”

“ This door opened out instead of in,—this I also knew when planning this surreptitious intrusion, but, after pulling it open and reaching for the curtain, which hung completely across it, I found it not so easy to proceed as I had imagined. The stealthiness of my action held back my hand; then the faint sounds I heard within advised me that she was not alone, and that she might very readily regard with displeasure my unexpected entrance by a door of which she was possibly ignorant. ”

“ Back at the cells, every man stands at attention behind the door with hands on the bars, waiting for the keeper to count the men until he orders, "Close," and with a deafening noise every iron door bangs in unison. ”

“ You will not be able to enter by the front door, as it is guarded, and you cannot pass without removing your mask. But the window on the left-hand balcony is at your service. It is open, and the man appointed to keep intruders away, has been bribed to let you pass. Once inside the house, join the company sans céremonie; and do not hesitate to converse with any one who addresses you by the countersign. Promptly at ten o'clock look around you for a domino in plain black. When you see him move, follow him, but with discretion, so that you may not seem to others to be following. ”

“ Another door opened into the guardroom proper, where stood the big, red hot stove and where waited two blacksmiths with the irons. Once in the guard room every window was barred, and members of the guard, three deep, blocked in eager curiosity the doorway leading to the outer air. ”

“ Yet it seems almost impossible to teach a servant that just “pushing the door to” is not shutting it, and the smells of the kitchen will escape as readily through a half-closed as through an open door. There is no help for this evil but watchfulness and constant reminder. You can put springs or rubber straps on the door, and while they are new and stiff they will swing to with force enough to close it ”

“ That's a small door, without a doubt,—perhaps to some unused closet. Maybe there was a time, when this house was new, when this room wasn't a library. Then somebody wanted to make it into a library, and fill all this side of the room with book-shelves. But that door was in the way. So they had it all papered over, and just put the shelves in front of it, as though it had never been there. You see the paper has fallen away, probably through dampness,—and the mice seem to have eaten it too. ”

“ Should the kitchen windows towards the area be deemed the most vulnerable place, one of the party descends, and breaks a pane of glass, which enables him to push back the bolt, and he slides up the window, the shutter whereof he forces with a small crow-bar, and if the house be not fully inhabited, he leisurely walks upstairs, and admits his accomplices at the front door. ”