, that I consider the sudden and violent abrogationabrogationof the office of Master in Chancery , by the new Constitution , as a -- premature actact; inasmuch as I had counted upon a life-lease of the profits , whereas I only receivedreceivethose of a few short years .
It was possible , I reflectedreflect, that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene , of the details of the picture , would be sufficient to modify , or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression ; and , actingactupon this idea , I reinedreinmy horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled lustre by the dwelling , and gazedgazedown -- but with a shuddershuddereven more thrillingthrillthan before -- upon the remodelled and inverted images of the grey sedge , and the ghastly tree-stems , and the vacant and eye-like windows .
Had my circumstances permitted me , I should have answered these words by an immediate journey to Paris ; but I was obliged to actactby the agency of a friend , who was upon the spot , and presentpresentat the opening of the will .
Before reaching her he stoppedstopon the grass and went through the form of feelingfeelfor something , possibly forgotten , in the light overcoat he carriedcarryon his arm ; yet the essence of the actactwas no more than the impulseimpulseto gain time .
The man was small and rather old , so that the brutality of the actactwas thus accentuated .