a door opening on
to the battlements. The house possessed two sitting-rooms, and she
explained to that pretty creature Lady Caroline--certainly a pretty
creature, whatever else she was; Tennyson would have enjoyed taking her
for blows on the downs--who had seemed inclined to appropriate the
honey-colored one, that she needed some little refuge entirely to
herself because of her stick.

"Nobody wants to see an old woman hobbling about everywhere," she
had said. "I shall be quite content to spend much of my time by myself
in here or sitting out on these convenient battlements."

And she had a very nice bedroom, too; it looked two ways, across
the bay in the morning sun--she liked the morning sun--and onto the
garden. There were only two of these bedrooms with cross-views in the
house, she and Lady Caroline had discovered, and they were by far the
airiest. They each had two beds in them, and she and Lady Caroline had
had the extra beds taken out at once and put into two of the other
rooms. In this way there was much more space and comfort. Lady
Caroline, indeed, had turned hers into a bed-sitting-room, with the
sofa out of the bigger drawing-room and the writing-table and the most
comfortable chair, but she herself had not had to do that because she
had her own sitting-room, equipped with what was necessary. Lady
Caroline had thought at first of taking the bigger sitting-room
entirely for her own, because the dining-room on the floor below could
quite well be used between meals to sit in by the two others, and was a
very pleasant room with nice chairs, but she had not liked the bigger
sitting-room's shape--it was a round room in the tower, with deep slit
windows pierced through the massive walls, and a domed and ribbed
ceiling arranged to look like an open umbrella, and it seemed a little
dark. Undoubtedly Lady Caroline had cast covetous glances at the
honey-coloured room, and if she Mrs. Fisher, had been less firm would
have installed herself in it. Which would have been absurd.

"I hope," said Mrs. Arbuthnot, smilingly making an attempt to
convey to Mrs. Fisher that though she, Mrs. Fisher, might not be
exactly a guest she certainly was not in the very least a hostess,
"your room is comfortable."

"Quite," said Mrs. Fisher. "Will you have some more coffee?"

"No, thank you. Will you?"

"No, thank you. There were two beds in my bedroom, filling it up
unnecessarily, and I had one taken out. It has made