"My dear Sir," I said, "you have hit it exactly. Yours is a sympathetic nature. How readily you have divined my thoughts! No doubt you too are suffering."
He sighed almost audibly. "How is the room furnished?" he said.
"Leading features," I said, "a Welsh dresser, rush-bottomed chairs, gate-legged table, bookcases—"
"Saxe-blue carpet," said Alison.
"A most important detail," Lord Bayswater said. "Don't you think something of a chintzy nature would ... etc."
Both Alison and I agreed that a prescription of that kind might possibly ... etc.
I don't know what is comprised under the term chintzy, but it appeared to be a comprehensive one, for the nobleman descanted on the merits of the following patterns among others:—
(1) Cockatoos on trees, cockatooing.
(2) Pheasants on trees, eating blackberries.
(3) Other birds on trees, doing nothing in particular.