There were few ornaments to be seen; no landscapes or hunting-scenes--no pictures of pretty women--no fancy pieces for the mantel--no wine either, nor cigars, for Bressant neither smoked nor drank.

A beautifully-finished and colored drawing of a patent derrick, in plan and side elevation, was pinned to the wall opposite the window.

Above the mantel-piece hung an ingeniously-contrived card almanac, by which the day of week and month could be told for a hundred years to come.

Two small globes, terrestrial and astronomical, stood upon the table; on the mantel-piece was an ordinary kerosene-lamp, with a conical shade of enamelled green paper, arabesqued in black, and ornamented with three transparencies, representing (when the lamp was lighted) bloody and fiery scenes in the late war; but in the daytime appearing to be nothing more terrible than plain pieces of white tissue-paper.
For two weeks Bressant had done his studying and thinking in this room.
He had enormous powers of application, naturally and by acquisition, and the first fortnight had seen them exerted to their full extent.

This diligence, however, was practised not so much because the course of study marked out necessitated it, as by way of voluntary self-discipline.