They sat on the garden wall until I invited them in, when they ate chocolates and biscuits, and the boy offered to repeat poetry.

I expected 'Casabianca' or the modern equivalent, but instead I got the song from Hippolytus, 'O take me to the Mountains, O.' It was rather surprising, but when he invited me to go with him to his home, which is next door, it was more surprising still.

Instead of finding another small villa like Hillview with a breakneck stair and poky little rooms, I found a real old cottage.

The room I was taken into was about the nicest I ever saw.

I think it would have fulfilled all your conditions as to the proper furnishing of a room; indeed, now that I think of it, it was quite a man's room.
"It had a polished floor and some good rugs, and creamy yellow walls with delicious coloured prints.