The wood logs burning in the grate gave out a pleasant sense of warmth.

He took more particular note of the volumes in the well-filled bookcases,--volumes of poetry, French novels, with a fair sprinkling of modern English fiction.

There was a plaster cast of the Paris Magdalene over the door and one or two fine point etchings, after the style of Heillieu, upon the walls.

There was no writing table in the room, nor any signs of industry, but a black oak gate-table was laden with magazines and fashion papers.

Against the brown walls, a clump of flaming yellow gorse leaned from a distant corner, its faint almond-like fragrance mingling aromatically with the perfume of burning logs and a great bowl of dried lavender.