“No such thing!” said Elinor. “Only see how it overhangs some of the windows! I dare say one can scarcely see to set a stitch in those rooms on the brightest day! Then, too, consider how the least wind must set the tendrils tapping at the windowpanes like ghostly fingers! How can you talk of stripping it away? You are not at all romantic!”
“No, not at all. Come, you will take cold if you stand any longer in this east wind. Let us go in.”
The door had already been opened by old Barrow. It was apparent to Elinor that this was not Carlyon’s first visit to Highnoons since he had left it in her company on the previous evening. Barrow looked at her certainly with curiosity, but there was no surprise in his face; and a glance round the hall showed Elinor that an attempt had been made to render it habitable.
“Barrow, here is your mistress,” Carlyon said, laying his hat down on the table. “Mrs. Cheviot, you will find Barrow very attentive to your comfort. You will wish to see Mrs. Barrow presently, I dare say, and to give her your orders. Meanwhile, I will conduct you over the house, if you are not too tired by the drive.”
“Not at all,” said Elinor feebly.
“Mrs. Barrow and the young wench your lordship fetched over from the Hall have redded up the Yellow Room for the mistress,” disclosed the retainer. “Them not thinking mistress would care to sleep in poor Mr. Eustace’s room, not but what he didn’t take and die there, when all’s said. Howsever—”
“Yes, that will do!” interrupted Carlyon. “Mrs. Cheviot, the bookroom you have seen already. The dining parlor is here.” He opened the door into a room on the left of the entrance” lobby. “It is not handsome—none of the rooms here are large, and the pitch is everywhere low—but I have known it when it has looked very pretty.”
“Ay, that you have, my lord,” agreed Barrow with a reminiscent sigh.
“Barrow, be so good as to go and desire Mrs. Barrow to send some coffee to the bookroom for Mrs. Cheviot!”
The retainer having been thus shaken off, Carlyon led Elinor over the rest of the house. She found it rather bewildering, for it was made up of what seemed to be a multitude of small rooms and very long passages. Many of the rooms were wainscoted to the ceiling, and the furniture was all old-fashioned and more often than not coated with dust.