In the centre of the room was a long, massive table, its timber carved by the axe, and on this a lamp was burning.

The floor was strewn with fur rugs, and on the walls hung the mounted heads of beasts.

These things impressed themselves upon Philip first.

It was as if he had stepped suddenly out of the world in which he was living into the ancient hall of a wild and half-savage thane whose bones had turned to dust centuries ago.
Not until Jean spoke to him, and led the way through the room, was this first impression swept back by his swift and closer observation of detail.

About him extreme age was curiously blended with the modern.
His breath stopped short when he saw in the shadow of the farther wall a piano, with a bronze lamp suspended from the ceiling above it.