He had not believed that a human home could be so dismal, and he could not understand how haircloth furniture and dimness could make it so.

His father's house was certainly not very large; and it was scantily and plainly furnished, but no Arabian palace had ever seemed so splendid to his imagination as that home was dear to his heart.

No, it isn't the furniture nor the smell, thought he.

I am quite sure it is something that I neither see nor smell that makes the difference.
As he sat on the uncomfortable sofa and heard the jangling bells of the ragman die away into the distance, and the loud, long, mournful whoop of the chimney-sweep, his fancy was busy with the figures of a thousand things that might be--of a certain nameless somebody, mistress of that poor, sombre house, but so lighting it up with grace and gay sweetness that the hard sofa became the most luxurious lounge, and the cheap table more gorgeous than ormolu; and of a certain other nameless somebody coming home at evening--an opening door--a rustle in the hall as of women's robes--a singular sound as of meeting lips--then a coming together arm in arm into the dingy furnished little parlor, but with such a bright fire blazing under the wooden mantle--and then--and then--a pattering of little feet down the stairs--Hem! hem! said Gabriel Bennet, clearing his throat, as if to arouse himself by making a noise.

For there was a sound of feet upon the stairs, and the next moment May and her sister Fanny entered the room.