He had known, even when he had known it most inaccessible, that there was another life which answered to every instinct of his for beauty and fitness.

He waited only for the release from strain for his entry with it.

Now by the shock of his mother's death he found himself precipitated in a frame of living where a parlour set out of Siegel Brothers' Household Emporium was the limit of taste and understanding.
The worst thing about Siegel Brothers' parlour sets was that he sold them.

He knew it was his particular value to Siegel Brothers that he had always known what sort of things were acceptable to the out-of-town trade.

He had selected this one distinctly with an eye to the pleasure his mother and Ellen would get out of what Bloombury would think of it.
He hadn't expected it would turn and rend him.