"Is not this a nice room, mamma?" said Ada presently.
"Oh," said Christina, "this is not the part you will care about! When Tom is able, we must go into the other room."
Tom soon said he should like to go, so Arthur and Walter carried him between them, while Christina led the way.
The "other room" was "the play-room." The name "nursery" had been discarded, because Ada said, "There might be children of all ages."
Like the drawing room, it had windows to the ground, with a south-west aspect, looking over the garden, the Heath, and the Surrey hills.
The floor was covered with a bright-coloured kamptulicon, while a very ample hearthrug was laid at the fireplace, which had a large wide-barred guard.
The walls were decorated with tasteful pictures, several really good engravings, and half a dozen plainly illuminated texts, which had been Walter's gift. The pictures were all Scripture subjects; for, as Christina said, earliest impressions last the longest.
On one side of the large room three small tables, hardly two feet high, were standing, and near them were six or eight tempting little wooden chairs, of various shapes, which would just suit the tables and the little occupants of the play-room.
Ada sprang forward when her mamma was looking at these. "Now these are my especial pets," she exclaimed; "they are the dearest little tables and chairs. Christina, let me fetch Alfy!"
"Very well," said Christina, smiling.