CHAPTER V.
For a characteristic scene of English life one could not do better than take Mr.Liversedge's dining-room when the family had assembled for the midday meal.

Picture a long and lofty room, lighted by windows which opened upon a lawn and flower-garden, adorned with large oil paintings (cattle-pieces and portraits) in massive and, for the most part, tarnished frames, and furnished in the solidest of British styles--mahogany chairs and table, an immense sideboard, a white marble fireplace, and a chandelier hanging with ponderous menace above the gleaming expanse of table-cloth.

Here were seated eleven persons: Mr.
Liversedge and his wife, their seven children (four girls and three boys), Miss Pope the governess, and Mr.Denzil Quarrier; waited upon by two maid-servants, with ruddy cheeks, and in spotless attire.

Odours of roast meat filled the air.

There was a jolly sound of knife-and-fork play, of young voices laughing and chattering, of older ones in genial colloquy.