There was a large sofa covered with dirty cretonne, and with a hollow in the middle showing that the spring had "gone;" the centre-table was adorned by several well-known religious books arranged at regular intervals.

A cage containing a canary hung between the curtains in the window, and the bird, a wretched-looking animal--it was moulting--woke up at their entrance and shrilled in the hateful manner peculiar to canaries.

This depressing room was lit by one gas-burner, which only permitted Ida to take in all that had been described but vaguely and dimly.
She looked round aghast and with a sinking of the heart.

She had never been in any room like this before, and its lack of comfort, its vulgarity, struck upon her strained nerves like a loud discordant note in music; but its owner looked round complacently and turned the gas a little higher, as he said: "I will go and fetch your cousin.

Won't you sit down ?" As he spoke, the door opened and the original of the portrait on the wall entered, followed by her daughter Isabel.