s a large room running through the house; the
windows on to the street were walled up, and the windows at the back
looked--on the garden, the trees of which grew close to the casements,
making the room dark, and in a breeze rustling their leaves or leafless
branches against the panes. In this room Anthony had a furnace with
bellows, the smoke of which discharged itself into the chimney; and here
he did much of his work, making mechanical toys, as a clock to measure
the speed of wind or water, a little chariot that ran a few yards by
itself, a puppet that moved its arms and laughed--and other things that
had wiled away his idle hours; the room was filled up with dark lumber,
in a sort of order that would have looked to a stranger like disorder,
but so that Anthony could lay his hand on all that he needed. From the
hall, which was paved with stone, went up the stairs, very strong and
broad, of massive oak; under which was a postern that gave on the
garden; on the floor above was a room where Anthony slept, which again
had its windows to the street boarded up, for he was a light sleeper,
and the morning sounds of the awakening city disturbed him.

The room was hung with a dark arras, sprinkled with red flowers; he
slept in a great bed with black curtains to shut out all light; the
windows looked into the garden; but on the left of the bed, which stood
with its head to the street, was an alcove, behind the hangings,
containing the window that gave on the church. On the same floor were
three other rooms; in one of these, looking on the garden, Anthony had
his meals. It was a plain panelled room. Next was a room where he read,
filled with books, also looking on the garden; and next to that was a
little room of which he alone had the key. This room he kept locked,
and no one set foot in it but himself. There was one more room on this
floor, set apart for a guest who never came, with a great bed and a
press of oak. And that looked on the street. Above, there was a row of
plain plastered rooms, in which stood furniture for which Anthony had no
use, and many crates in which his machines and phials came to him; this
floor was seldom visited, except by the man, who sometimes came to put a
box there; and the spiders had it to themselves; except for a little
room where stood an optic glass through which on clear nights Anthony
sometimes looked at the moon and stars, if there was any odd
misadventure among them, such as an eclipse; or