It was a large
room, evidently unused, for the furniture was covered with holland, and
there was a mustiness about it which suggested that the windows were
seldom opened. As in many old houses, the rooms led not from a passage
but into one another, and they walked through many till they came back
into the hall. They had all a desolate, uninhabited air. Their sombreness
was increased by the oak with which they were panelled. There was
panelling in the hall too, and on the stairs that led broadly to the
top of the house. As they ascended, Arthur stopped for one moment and
passed his hand over the polished wood.
'It would burn like tinder,' he said.
They went through the rooms on the first floor, and they were as empty
and as cheerless. Presently they came to that which had been Margaret's.
In a bowl were dead flowers. Her brushes were still on the toilet table.
But it was a gloomy chamber, with its dark oak, and, so comfortless that
Susie shuddered. Arthur stood for a time and looked at it, but he said
nothing. They found themselves again on the stairs and they went to the
second storey.
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