My couch and appurtenances abode there, and it was to be my retreat
from company,--or on occasion could be made a supplementary drawing-
room, as its fittings showed it had been the parlour. It
communicated with another chamber, which became my own--sparing the
difficulties that stairs always presented; and beyond lay, niched
under the grand staircase, a tiny light closet, a passage-room,
where my mother put a bed for a man-servant, not liking to leave me
entirely alone on the ground floor. It led to a passage to the
garden door, also to my mother's den, dedicated to housewifely cares
and stores, and ended at the back stairs, descending to the
servants' region. This was very old, handsomely vaulted with stone,
and, owing to the fall of the ground, had ample space for light on
the north side,--where, beyond the drive, the descent was so rapid
as to afford Martyn infinite delight in rolling down, to the horror
of all beholders and the detriment of his white duck trowsers.
I don't know much about the upper story, so I spare you that. Emily
had a hankering for one of the pretty old mullioned-windowed rooms--
the mullion chambers, as she named them; but Griff pounced on them
at once, the inner for his repose, the outer for his guns and his
studies--not smoking, for young men were never permitted to smoke
within doors, nor indeed in any home society.
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