It was not on the same floor, for it was a room at the side of the house, which was approached by a steep descent of a few odd steps, diverging from the main
staircase nearly opposite to Mrs Clennam's door.
She erected in her mind a mighty
Staircase, with a dark pit of shame and ruin at the bottom; and down those stairs, from day to day and hour to hour, she saw Louisa coming.
Another group of characters had now partly descended the
staircase. The first was a venerable and white-bearded patriarch, who cautiously felt his way downward with a staff.
He cast a glance of tenderness and admiration into the interior of the precious pouch, readjusted his toilet, rubbed up his boots, dusted his poor half sleeves, all gray with ashes, whistled an air, indulged in a sportive pirouette, looked about to see whether there were not something more in the cell to take, gathered up here and there on the furnace some amulet in glass which might serve to bestow, in the guise of a trinket, on Isabeau la Thierrye, finally pushed open the door which his brother had left unfastened, as a last indulgence, and which he, in his turn, left open as a last piece of malice, and descended the circular
staircase, skipping like a bird.
Baisemeaux bowed his head, took the keys, and unaccompanied, except by the minister, ascended the
staircase. The higher they advanced up the spiral
staircase, the more clearly did certain muffled murmurs become distinct appeals and fearful imprecations.
The doorway of the
staircase gives on the little courtyard close to the left here," pointing with his hand, "near to the window of my establishment.
D'Artagnan, as we have said, perceived a hole in that place and in this hole the steps of a winding
staircase.
They returned to the hall, that the chief
staircase might be ascended, and the beauty of its wood, and ornaments of rich carving might be pointed out: having gained the top, they turned in an opposite direction from the gallery in which her room lay, and shortly entered one on the same plan, but superior in length and breadth.
The stairs up to her room came out on the landing of the great warm main
staircase.
He raised the door and I caught sight of the top of a spiral
staircase; then he said, turning to the lady, "Madam, this is the way that will lead you down to the spot which I told you of."
He had run up against the ghost on the little
staircase, by the footlights, which leads to "the cellars." He had seen him for a second-- for the ghost had fled--and to any one who cared to listen to him he said:
Raoul was not four minutes in performing what he had been directed to do; he returned to the little door, where, in the gloom, he found his mysterious conductress waiting for him, on the first steps of a winding
staircase.