Window and door were open, and leafy, ferny odors mingled with the smell of burning cedar.

The combined scent was very pleasant, but the professor could have wished that the bouquet of coffee and fried bacon had been included.

He was quite painfully hungry.
Through the open door the voice of falling water still called to him but of other and more human voices there were none.

Well, he could at least wash.

With a shrug he turned away from the half cleared table and, in the doorway, almost ran into the arms of a little, old man in a frock coat and a large umbrella.