A Charming Fellow Volume I

The room was very quiet. The autumn day was fading and the mingling of twilight and firelight and the stillness of the scene were conducive to mute meditation. It was a long low room with an uneven floor a whitewashed ceiling crossed by heavy beams and one large bow window. It was furnished with the spindle-legged chairs and tables in use in the last century. A crimson drugget covered the floor and in front of the hearth lay a rug made of scraps of black and coloured cloth neatly sewn together in a pattern. Over the high wooden mantelpiece hung on one side a faded water-colour sketch of a gentleman with powdered hair; and on the other an oval miniature of much later date which represented a fair florid young lady with large languid blue eyes and a red mouth somewhat too full-lipped. Notwithstanding the years which had elapsed since the miniature was painted it was still sufficiently like Mrs. Errington to be recognised for her portrait.