"Bring the candle. Not you,
Eustace, darling. Don't you stir out of bed!"
"I won't," said Eustace obediently.
3
Of all the leisured pursuits, there are few less attractive to the
thinking man than sitting in a dark cupboard waiting for a house-party
to go to bed: and Sam, who had established himself in the one behind
the piano at a quarter to eight, soon began to feel as if he had been
there for an eternity. He could dimly remember a previous existence in
which he had not been sitting in his present position, but it seemed so
long ago that it was shadowy and unreal to him. The ordeal of spending
the evening in this retreat had not appeared formidable when he had
contemplated it that afternoon in the lane: but, now that he was
actually undergoing it, it was extraordinary how many disadvantages it
had.
Cupboards, as a class, are badly ventilated, and this one seemed to
contain no air at all: and the warmth of the night, combined with the
cupboard's natural stuffiness, had soon begun to reduce Sam to a
condition of pulp.
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