heavy furniture being moved about.

The Phoenix strutted up and down the leather-covered table, looking
over its shoulder at its pretty back.

'You see what a convincing manner I have,' it said proudly.

And now a new gentleman came in and said, bowing low--

'Everything is prepared--we have done our best at so short a
notice; the meeting--the ceremony--will be in the board-room. Will
the Honourable Phoenix walk--it is only a few steps--or would it
like to be--would it like some sort of conveyance?'

'My Robert will bear me to the board-room, if that be the unlovely
name of my temple's inmost court,' replied the bird.

So they all followed the gentleman. There was a big table in the
board-room, but it had been pushed right up under the long windows
at one side, and chairs were arranged in rows across the room--like
those you have at schools when there is a magic lantern on 'Our
Eastern Empire', or on 'The Way We Do in the Navy'. The doors were
of carved wood, very beautiful, with a carved Phoenix above.
Anthea noticed that the chairs in the front rows were of the kind
that her mother so loved to ask the price of in old furniture
shops, and never could buy, because the price was always nearly
twenty pounds each. On the mantelpiece were some heavy bronze
candlesticks and a clock, and on the top of the clock was another
image of the Phoenix.