"Comme c'est bien!" she said to herself; such a large, solid, irreproachable basis of existence the place seemed to her to indicate.

And then she reflected that Mrs.Acton was soon to withdraw from it.

The reflection accompanied her the rest of the way down-stairs, where she paused again, making more observations.

The hall was extremely broad, and on either side of the front door was a wide, deeply-set window, which threw the shadows of everything back into the house.
There were high-backed chairs along the wall and big Eastern vases upon tables, and, on either side, a large cabinet with a glass front and little curiosities within, dimly gleaming.

The doors were open--into the darkened parlor, the library, the dining-room.