An
unscrupulous writer in a well-known weekly paper had written the
collection down. Moreover there had been one or two large sales a short
time before Dr Skinner's, so that at this last there was rather a panic,
and a reaction against the high prices that had ruled lately.
The table of the library was loaded with books many deep; MSS. of all
kinds were confusedly mixed up with them,--boys' exercises, probably, and
examination papers--but all littering untidily about. The room in fact
was as depressing from its slatternliness as from its atmosphere of
erudition. Theobald and Ernest as they entered it, stumbled over a large
hole in the Turkey carpet, and the dust that rose showed how long it was
since it had been taken up and beaten. This, I should say, was no fault
of Mrs Skinner's but was due to the Doctor himself, who declared that if
his papers were once disturbed it would be the death of him. Near the
window was a green cage containing a pair of turtle doves, whose
plaintive cooing added to the melancholy of the place. The walls were
covered with book shelves from floor to ceiling, and on every shelf the
books stood in double rows.
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