here is no help for it now
--so let me try to sleep--numero vingt-huit."

How long I remained in a kind of uneasy, fitful slumber, I cannot tell;
but I awoke shivering with cold--puzzled to tell where I was, and my
brain addled with the broken fragments of half a dozen dreams, all
mingling and mixing themselves with the unpleasant realities of my
situation. What an infernal contrivance for a bed, thought I, as my head
came thump against the top, while my legs projected far beyond the
foot-rail; the miserable portion of clothing over me at the same time
being only sufficient to temper the night air, which in autumn is
occasionally severe and cutting. This will never do. I must ring the
bell and rouse the house, if only to get a fire, if they don't possess
such a thing as blankets. I immediately rose, and groping my way along
the wall endeavoured to discover the bell, but in vain; and for the same
satisfactory reason that Von Troil did not devote one chapter of his
work on "Iceland" to "snakes," because there were none such there. What
was now to be done? About the geography of my present abode I knew,
perhaps, as much as the public at large know about the Coppermine river
and Behring's straits. The world, it was true, was before me, "where
top choose," admirable things for an epic, but decidedly an unfortunate
circumstance for a very cold gentleman in search of a blanket. Thus
thinking, I opened the door of my chamber, and not in any way resolved
how I should proceed, I stepped forth into the long corridor, which was
dark as midnight itself.

Tracing my path along the wall, I soon reached a door which I in vain
attempted to open; in another moment I found another and another, each of
which were locked. Thus along the entire corridor I felt my way, making
every effort to discover where any of the people of the house might have
concealed themselves, but without success. What was to be done now? It
was of no use to go back to my late abode, and find it comfortless as I
left it; so I resolved to proceed in my search; by this time I had
arrived at the top of a small flight of stairs, which I remembered having
come up, and which led to another long passage similar to the one I had
explored, but running in a transverse direction, down this I now crept,
and reached the landing, along the wall of which I was guided by my hand,
as well for safety as to discover the architrave of some friendly door,
where the inhabitant