the hall was the drawing-room, with its side-window serving as a door
into a conservatory, and this again opened into the library. Old Mr.
Wilkins had added a semicircular projection to the library, which was
lighted by a dome above, and showed off his son's Italian purchases of
sculpture. The library was by far the most striking and agreeable room
in the house; and the consequence was that the drawing-room was seldom
used, and had the aspect of cold discomfort common to apartments rarely
occupied. Mr. Wilkins's study, on the other side of the house, was also
an afterthought, built only a few years ago, and projecting from the
regularity of the outside wall; a little stone passage led to it from the
hall, small, narrow, and dark, and out of which no other door opened.

The study itself was a hexagon, one side window, one fireplace, and the
remaining four sides occupied with doors, two of which have been already
mentioned, another at the foot of the narrow winding stairs which led
straight into Mr. Wilkins's bedroom over the dining-room, and the fourth
opening into a path through the shrubbery to the right of the
flower-garden as you looked from the house. This path led through the
stable-yard, and then by a short cut right into Hamley, and brought you
out close to Mr. Wilkins's office; it was by this way he always went and
returned to his business. He used the study for a smoking and lounging
room principally, although he always spoke of it as a convenient place
for holding confidential communications with such of his clients as did
not like discussing their business within the possible hearing of all the
clerks in his office. By the outer door he could also pass to the
stables, and see that proper care was taken at all times of his favourite
and valuable horses. Into this study Ellinor would follow him of a
morning, helping him on with his great-coat, mending his gloves, talking
an infinite deal of merry fond nothing; and then, clinging to his arm,
she would accompany him in his visits to the stables, going up to the