At the left of the hall, the first door led to the smaller parlour, as
wide but not as long as the great one, and in daily use as the chief
living-room of the house. Its windows were those through which the
candle-light within had welcomed us from the frosty, snowy air that
evening. Behind this parlour, and reached either directly from it, or
by a second door at the left side of the hall, was the library,
so-called although a single case of eight shelves sufficed to hold all
the books it contained. Yet Philip said there was a world in those
books. The room was a small and singularly cosy one, and here, when
Mr. Faringfield was not occupied at the mahogany desk, we children
might play at chess, draughts, cards, and other games. From this room,
one went back into the dining-room, another apartment endeared to me
by countless pleasant memories. Its two windows looked Southward
across the side grounds (for the hall and great parlour came not so
far back) to our house and garden. Behind the dining-room, and
separating it from the kitchen and pantry, was a passage with a back
stairway and with a bench of washing-basins, easily supplied with
water from a cistern below, and from the kettle in the adjacent
kitchen. To this place we youngsters now hastened, to put ourselves to
rights for supper. The house was carpeted throughout. The great
parlour was panelled in wood, white and gold.
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