Certainly
she was smiling, and certainly her colour was enhanced.
The room, though business-like, was feminine. It had a Chippendale bureau
between the windows, its pigeon-holes stuffed with papers; but there were
flowers upon it, and elsewhere many photographs, and pictures evidently
chosen by the tenant. The _Dante_ from the Bargello was one, the three
headless _Fates_ of the Parthenon another; the _Hermes_ and the
_Sophocles_, all in autogravure. It had a piano and a small bookcase
containing the poets in green morocco, a uniform set. Elsewhere, in a
larger bookcase, were miscellaneous volumes, by no means all novels,
though novels there were. One shelf was filled with household books:
cookery, bee-keeping, poultry, the _Dog in Health and Disease_, the horse,
the flower-garden, _Botany, British Edible Fungi_, the _World of
Vegetables_, were some of the subjects treated of. Below the bookcase was
a row of japanned tin boxes, carefully lettered in white paint. House
Accounts, Garden Accounts, Stable Accounts, one read. A fourth bore the
words "Wood Sales and Miscellaneous."
If you were alone, waiting in the room, you would glance at the
photographs perched about, like alighting butterflies, upon piano and
mantelshelf and occasional table.
Pages:
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62