'Enter only!' So they all went in, wiping their feet on a very clean mat, and putting the carpet in a safe corner of the veranda.
'The most beautiful days of my life,' said the lady, as she shut the door, 'did pass themselves in England.

And since long time I have not heard an English voice to repeal me the past.' This warm welcome embarrassed every one, but most the boys, for the floor of the hall was of such very clean red and white tiles, and the floor of the sitting-room so very shiny--like a black looking-glass--that each felt as though he had on far more boots than usual, and far noisier.
There was a wood fire, very small and very bright, on the hearth--neat little logs laid on brass fire-dogs.

Some portraits of powdered ladies and gentlemen hung in oval frames on the pale walls.

There were silver candlesticks on the mantelpiece, and there were chairs and a table, very slim and polite, with slender legs.

The room was extremely bare, but with a bright foreign bareness that was very cheerful, in an odd way of its own.