Carewe's library was commonly alluded to by Rouen as the "Tower Chamber,"
will prove himself so sectionally prejudiced as to deny that the town was
a veritable hotbed of literary interest, or that Sir `Walter Scott was
ill-appreciated there? Some of the men looked sly, and others grinned, at
mention of this apartment; but the romantic were not lacking who spoke of
it in whispers: how the lights sometimes shone there all night long, and
the gentlemen drove away, whitefaced, in the dawn. The cupola, rising
above the library, overlooked the garden; and the house, save for that,
was of a single story, with a low veranda running the length of its front.
The windows of the library and of a row of bedrooms---one of which was
Miss Betty's--lined the veranda, "steamboat fashion;" the inner doors of
these rooms all opening upon a long hail which bisected the house. he
stairway leading to the room in the cupola rose the library itself, while
the bisecting hail afforded be only access to the library; hence, the
gossips, `eli acquainted with the geography of the place, conferred
seriously together upon what effect Miss Betty's homecoming would have in
this connection:

Dr anyone going to the stairway must needs pass her door; and, what was
more to the point, a party C gentlemen descending late from the mysterious
garret might be not so quiet as they intended, and the young lady
sufficiently disturbed to inquire of her father what entertainment he
provided that should keep his guests until four in the morning.

But at present it was with the opposite end of the house that the town was
occupied, for there, workmen were hammering and sawing and painting day
long, finishing the addition Mr. Carewe was building for his daughter's
debut. This hammering disturbed Miss Betty, who had become almost as busy
with the French Revolution as with her mantua-maker. For she had found in
her father's library many books not for convent-shelves; and she had