He opened his bedroom door, and the girl, with a feeling of awed delight, crossed the threshold of his room.
If anything could have added to the worship which filled her for this man it was the sight of that beautiful room, in which he slept and, as he said, dreamt and thought about her.
She hated disorder of any kind, and finding it difficult to be always tidy and orderly in her surroundings, herself, owing to her impetuous, unmethodical nature, she specially admired the gift for order in another.
She hated old, untidy clothes, hated the sight of anything that looked torn or used or worn, and was fairly familiar with such things in the Rectory bedrooms, since any clothes are considered good enough for the country and home. Here, having taken Everest completely by surprise, she saw nothing that offended her. All was in perfect order, every object that met the eye was one of beauty and spoke of refinement and elegance.
The centre table had flowers upon it, and an open leather writing-case, where he had written his last letter to her, the previous evening. A bookcase, low and convenient, stood by a long chair covered with a blue silk rug. There seemed no clothes anywhere—doubtless they were all ranged neatly in those many wardrobes, standing against the walls—except a deep blue dressing-gown, thrown over an arm-chair, and the silk sleeping-suit lying on his bed.
His dressing-table was really beautiful in its appointments, and the girl's eyes rested with delight on his silver brushes and mirrors and razors and scissors and buttonhooks.
It was all charming; it breathed order, beauty and peace; for a spirit of peace is largely the result of order. Although not perhaps generally recognised, nothing fatigues the eye and mind and body more than disordered surroundings, the broken lines of a crowded and untidy room.
Regina had heard much of the supposed ugliness and untidiness of bachelors' apartments, much also about the feminine touch and the refinement to be found in a maiden's room. But this, the first bachelor's room she had ever entered, in its stately order, compared amazingly with the many rooms of girls and women that she had seen.
Everest drew her over to the mantelpiece.
"There is your picture," he said, and she gave an exclamation of delight as she saw it.