From it the ground sloped down towards the valley, and at some distance beneath smoke curled from a house lost amid clouds of foliage, the abounding green life of this damp and brooding hollow.

A great window looking down the woodside filled one side of the chalet, and the others were dark with books, an occasional picture or figured jar lighting up the shadow.

A small fire flickered beneath a quaintly devised mantel, though it was summer--for the mists crept up the hill at night and chilled the souls of the books.

A great old bureau, with a wonderful belly of mahogany, filled a corner of the room, breathing antique mystery and refinement.

At one end of it, on a small vacant space of wall, hung a cast, apparently the death-mask of a woman, by which the eye was immediately attracted with something of a shock and held by a curious fascination.