The fog and frost so hung about the black old gateway of the house , that it seemed as if the Genius of the Weather sat in mournful meditation on the threshold . Now , it is a fact that there was nothing at all particular about the knocker on the door , except that it was very large . It is also a fact that Scrooge had seen it , night and morning , during his whole residence in that place ; also that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the City of London , even including -- which is a bold word -- the corporation , aldermen , and livery . Let it also be borne in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on Marley since his last mention of his seven-years ' - dead partner that afternoon . And then let any man explain to me , if he can , how it happened that Scrooge , having his key in the lock of the door , saw in the knocker , without its undergoing any intermediate process of change -- not a knocker , but Marley 's face . Marley 's face . It was not in impenetrable shadow , as the other objects in the yard were , but had a dismal light about it , like a bad lobster in a dark cellar . It was not angry or ferocious , but looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look : with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead . The hair was curiously stirred , as if by breath of hot air ; and , though the eyes were wide open , they were perfectly motionless . That , and its livid colour , made it horrible ; but its horror seemed to be in spite of the face , and beyond its control , rather than a part of its own expression . As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon , it was a knocker again . To say that he was not startled , or that his blood was not conscious of a terrible sensation to which it had been a stranger from infancy , would be untrue . But he put his hand upon the key he had relinquished , turned it sturdily , walked in , and lighted his candle . He did pause , with a moment 's irresolution , before he shut the door ; and he did look cautiously behind it first , as if he half expected to be terrified with the sight of Marley 's pigtail sticking out into the hall . But there was nothing on the back of the door , except the screws and nuts that held the knocker on , so he said , `` Pooh , pooh ! '' and closed it with a bang . The sound resounded through the house like thunder . Every room above , and every cask in the wine merchant 's cellars below , appeared to have a separate peal of echoes of its own . Scrooge was not a man to be frightened by echoes . He fastened the door , and walked across the hall , and up the stairs : slowly , too : trimming his candle as he went .
You may talk vaguely about driving a coach and six up a good old flight of stairs , or through a bad young Act of Parliament ; but I mean XXXXX say you might have got a hearse up that staircase , and taken it broadwise , with the splinter-bar towards the wall , and the door towards the balustrades : and done it easy .
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