It was long since Cosmo had been in it before.

The aspect of it affected him like a withered wall-flower.
It was a well-furnished room.

A lady with taste must at one time at least have presided in it--but then withering does so much for beauty--and that not of stuffs and THINGS only! The furniture of it was very modern compared with the house, but not much of it was younger than the last James, or Queen Anne, and it had all a stately old-maidish look.

Such venerable rooms have been described, and painted, and put on the stage, and dreamed about, tens of thousands of times, yet they always draw me afresh as if they were as young as the new children who keep the world from growing old.
They haunt me, and if I miss them in heaven, I shall have one given me.

On the floor was an old, old carpet, wondrously darned and skilfully patched, with all its colours faded into a sweet faint ghost-like harmony.