When the Earl and his Countess were alone they used a small breakfast parlour, and between this and the big dining-room there was the little chamber in which the Countess usually lived.

The Earl's own room was at the back, or if the reader pleases, front of the house, near the door leading into the street, and was, of all rooms in the house, the gloomiest.
The atmosphere of the whole place was gloomy.

There were none of those charms of modern creation which now make the mansions of the wealthy among us bright and joyous.

There was not a billiard table in the house.

There was no conservatory nearer than the large old-fashioned greenhouse, which stood away by the kitchen garden and which seemed to belong exclusively to the gardener.