Lord Mergwain re-settled himself to his bottle.
In the meantime, in the guest-chamber, which had for so long entertained neither friend nor stranger, Cosmo and Aggie were busy--too busy to talk much--airing the linen, dusting the furniture, setting things tidy, and keeping up a roaring fire.

For this purpose the remnants of an old broken-down cart, of which the axle was anciently greasy, had been fetched from the winter-store, and the wood and peats together, with a shovelful of coal to give the composition a little body, had made a glorious glow.

But the heat had hardly yet begun to affect sensibly the general atmosphere of the place.

It was a large room, the same size as the drawing-room immediately under it, and still less familiar to Cosmo.

For, if the latter filled him with a kind of loving awe, the former caused him a kind of faint terror, so that, in truth, even in broad daylight, at no time was he willing to enter it.