French windows and plate-glass, for instance; and if those lumbering bookshelves and horrid old chimney-pieces were removed and the ceiling painted white and gold like that in my uncle's saloon, and a rich, lively paper, instead of the tapestry, it would really make a very fine ballroom." "Let us have a dance here now," cried Cecilia.

"Come, stand up, Sophy;" and the children began to practise a waltz step, tumbling over each other, and laughing in full glee.
"Hush, hush!" said Evelyn, softly.

She had never before checked the children's mirth, and she could not tell why she did so now.
"I suppose the old butler has been entertaining the bailiff here," said Caroline, pointing to the remains of the fire.
"And is this the room he chiefly inhabited,--the room that you say they show as his ?" "No; that tapestry door to the right leads into a little study where he wrote." So saying, Caroline tried to open the door, but it was locked from within.

She then opened the other door, which showed a long wainscoted passage, hung with rusty pikes, and a few breastplates of the time of the Parliamentary Wars.

"This leads to the main body of the House," said Caroline, "from which the room we are now in and the little study are completely detached, having, as you know, been the chapel in popish times.