Excerpt from Mary Seaham, Vol. 1 of 3: A NovelThe very servants, to whose festive entertain ment the evening had been appropriated, whether able to carry out to the required extent the kind intentions Of their employers, or reduced by the fatigue and excitement Of the day to the condition of that establishment, Dickens has so ably and ludicrously described, at all events suffered not their notes Of mirth to escape the precincts of their apartments. All was hushed as the sleeping beauty's palace in the superior portion of the mansion, and if not quite deserted, to one entering the house at the moment of this opening chapter, it might almost have seemed that the same spell had been cast over its inmates.Another moment, however, and there could have been distinguished the quick opening and shutting of an upper chamber door, and soon down the staircase, ' a young lady.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.