•' Yes, Bir, in the old master's room ; there she sits mostly all her time now. The drawing room is seldom used, and for that matter the dining room might be shut up, too, so far as dinners are concerned." The contempt with which Mr Merton hinted at the very moderate character of the meals which were now provided in the establish ment was equal to a folio of condemnation. I was ushered into the room on the left hand of the entrance hall, where Mr Driffell had been accustomed to transact such business as could not well be seen to in the billiard room. It was very sparsely fur nished with such things as had sufficed for the master's scanty needs, including even some boxeß of cigars in a cupboard with a glass door; nothing was added or had been improved upon; even the volumes in the bookcase* were mostly old ledgers. An apartment unlike one's notion of a lady's boudoir indeed. Yet here, as the butler bad said, his mistress sat every day, and almost all day, in preference to any other room, because, of course, it had been her husband's; it was the nearest approach to him she could get. If he was dead in the flesh, but still at home in the spirit, it was probable that he would be there, where he Bad engaged himself in the work that had so interested him, but which he had left so suddenly and mysteriously unfinished.
