DISINHERITED When Thyrza left the two at tea and went downstairs, she knocked at the door of the front parlour on the ground floor.

The room which she entered was but dimly lighted; thick curtains encroached upon each side of the narrow window, which was also shadowed above by a valance with long tassels, whilst in front of it stood a table with a great pot of flowering musk.

The atmosphere was close; with the odour of the plant blended the musty air which comes from old and neglected furniture.
Mrs.Grail, Gilbert Grail's mother, was an old lady with an unusual dislike for the upset of household cleaning, and as her son's prejudice, like that of most men, tended in the same direction, this sitting-room, which they used in common, had known little disturbance since they entered it a year and a half ago.

Formerly they had occupied a house in Battersea; it was given up on the death of Gilbert's sister, and these lodgings taken in Walnut Tree Walk.
A prominent object in the room was a bookcase, some six feet high, quite full of books, most of them of shabby exterior.

They were Gilbert's purchases at second-hand stalls during the past fifteen years.