occasions; for fragments of mouldering tapestry still here and there
clung to the walls; and a high chimney-piece, whereon, in plaster relief,
was commemorated the memorable fishing party of Antony and Cleopatra,
retained patches of colour and gilding, which must when fresh have made
the Egyptian queen still more appallingly hideous, and the fish at the
end of Antony's hook still less resembling any creature known to
ichthyologists.

The library had been arranged into shelves from floor to roof by Mr.
Darrell's father, and subsequently, for the mere purpose of holding as
many volumes as possible, brought out into projecting wings (college-
like) by Darrell himself, without any pretension to mediaeval character.
With this room communicated a small reading-closet, which the host
reserved to himself; and this, by a circular stair cut into the massive
wall, ascended first into Mr. Darrell's sleeping-chamber, and thence into
a gable recess that adjoined the gallery, and which the host had fitted
up for the purpose of scientific experiments in chemistry or other
branches of practical philosophy. These more private rooms Lionel was
not permitted to enter. Altogether the house was one of those cruel
tenements which it would be a sin to pull down, or even materially to
alter, but which it would be an hourly inconvenience for a modern family
to inhabit. It was out of all character with Mr. Darrell's former
position in life, or with the fortune which Lionel vaguely supposed him
to possess, and considerably underrated. Like Sir Nicholas Bacon, the
man had grown too large for his habitation.

"I don't wonder," said Lionel, as, their wanderings over, he and
Fairthorn found themselves in the library, "that Mr. Darrell began to
build a new house. But it would have been a great pity to pull down this
for it."