of the morningdusting the

The people we saw were old family friends, and relations, but wedidn't see many people. There was the clergyman, Mr. Pepper,and the Hunts. Father generally wanted to be quiet when hecame home, because he works very hard at Hull. Also my aunts aren'tvery strong. A house takes up a lot of time if you do it properly. 　　Our servants were always bad, and so Aunt Lucy used to do a good dealin the kitchen, and Aunt Clara, I think, spent most of the morningdusting the drawing-room and going through the linen and silver. 　　Then there were the dogs. They had to be exercised, besides beingwashed and brushed. Now Sandy's dead, but Aunt Clara has a veryold cockatoo that came from India. Everything in our house,"she exclaimed, "comes from somewhere! It's full of old furniture,not really old, Victorian, things mother's family had or father'sfamily had, which they didn't like to get rid of, I suppose,though we've really no room for them. It's rather a nice house,"she continued, "except that it's a little dingy--dull I should say."She called up before her eyes a vision of the drawing-room at home;it was a large oblong room, with a square window opening on the garden. 　　Green plush chairs stood against the wall; there was a heavy carvedbook-case, with glass doors, and a general impression of fadedsofa covers, large spaces of pale green, and baskets with piecesof wool-work dropping out of them. Photographs from old Italianmasterpieces hung on the walls, and views of Venetian bridges andSwedish waterfalls which members of the family had seen years ago. 　　There were also one or two portraits of fathers and grandmothers,and an engraving of John Stuart Mill, after the picture by Watts. 　　It was a room without definite character, being neither typicallyand openly hideous, nor strenuously artistic, nor really comfortable. 　　Rachel roused herself from the contemplation of this familiarpicture. 　　"But this isn't very interesting for you," she said, looking up. 　　"Good Lord!" Hewet exclaimed. "I've never been so much interestedin my life." She then realised that while she had been thinkingof Richmond, his eyes had never left her face. The knowledgeof this excited her.