Much
space was agreeably wasted in corridors and passages, and there
were huge attics with great timbered supports, needed to sustain
the heavy stone tiling, which had never been converted into living
rooms. There was the hall, which took up a considerable part of one
side; out of this, towards the road, opened the little parlour
where he had breakfasted, and above it was a library full of books,
with its oriel overhanging the road, and two windows looking into
the garden. Then there was the big drawing-room. Upstairs there
were but a half a dozen bedrooms. The offices and the servants'
bedrooms were in the wing on the road. There was but little
furniture in the house. Mr. Graves had had a preference for large
bare rooms; and such furniture as there was, was all for use and
not for ornament, so that there was a refreshing lack of any
aesthetic pose about it. There were but few pictures, but most of
the rooms were panelled and needed no other ornament. There was a
refreshing sense of space everywhere, and Howard thought that he
had never seen a house he liked so well. Miss Merry chirped away,
retailing little bits of history. Howard now for the first time
learned that Mr. Graves had retired early from business with a
considerable fortune, and being fond of books and leisure, and
rather delicate in health, had established himself in the house,
which had taken his fancy. There were some fifteen hundred acres of
land attached, divided up into several small farms.
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