"I crossed the staircase landing and entered the room she indicated. From that room too the daylight was completely excluded and it had an airless smell that was oppressive. A fire had been lately kindled in the damp old-fashioned grate and it was more disposed to go out than to burn up and the reluctant smoke which hung in the room seemed colder than the clearer air - like our own marsh mist.

Certain wintry branches of candles on the high chimneypiece faintly lighted the chamber: or it would be more expressive to say faintly troubled its darkness. It was spacious and I dare say had once been handsome but every discernible thing in it was covered with dust and mould and dropping to pieces. The most prominent object was a long table with a tablecloth spread on it as if a feast had been in preparation when the house and the clocks all stopped together."