When the carriage stopped, the driver jumped down and held out his hand to help me to get out. Again I could not help noticing his how enormously strong he was. His hand seemed like a steel vice that could have crushed mine if he had wanted to. He took my luggage, and placed it on the ground beside me. I was standing close to a great door, old and studded with large iron nails, inside a projecting doorway of massive stone. I could see even in the dim light that the stone was covered in carvings, but that the carving had been almost worn away by time and weather. As I stood by the door, the driver jumped into his seat again and shook the reins. The horses started forward, and the carriage disappeared down one of the dark openings.

I stood in silence where I was, since I did not know what to do next. There was no sign of a bell or knocker. And I did not think that my voice would penetrate these thick dark walls and black window openings. I seemed to wait forever, and I felt doubts and fears growing stronger and stronger. What sort of place had I come to, and among what kind of people? What sort of grim adventure was it that I had now set out on? Was this a normal incident in the life of a solicitor's clerk who had gone to explain the purchase of a London estate to a foreigner? Solicitor's clerk! Mina would not like that. I should say 'Solicitor', because just before I had left London I was told that I had passed my examination, and I am now a fully-qualified solicitor!

Vocabulary:

Vice: A machine for squeezing things together
Studded: With lumpy things in the surface
Projecting: Sticking out (here, from the wall)
Massive: Very big
Knocker: Attached to a door for banging on it
Penetrate: Go through or deep into
Incident: Something which happens
Estate: Land with a house on it