Certainly it was the strangest room she had ever been in.

The floor was dusty and innocent of any carpet; the window was bare and uncurtained.

The walls were unpapered but covered here and there with strange-looking plans, one of them taking up nearly the whole side of the room--a very rough piece of work with little dabs of blue paint here and there, and shadings and diagrams which were absolutely unintelligible.

She herself was lying upon a battered iron bedstead, and she was wearing a very coarse nightdress.

Her own clothes were folded up and lay upon a piece of brown paper on the floor by the side of the bed.