Page:Cornelia Meigs--The Pool of Stars.djvu/103

 and such pieces of heavy mahogany furniture as were still in use in the cottage and which stood out in such strong contrast to the very plain chairs and tables of painted pine that filled the rest of the Reynolds' abode. The ivy that had once climbed the high walls, that had crept around the leaded windows and festooned the pillared doorway, now spread its mats of green and its slim, rose colored tendrils over the desolate ruins and covered what it could. Broken pictures still showed half buried under bricks and plaster, while a mirror leaned crookedly against a wall, showing fantastic patterns of shivered glass.

"This must have been the kitchen," David went on as they progressed farther. "Be careful how you climb about, these old walls are none too solid."

He himself, however, went clambering up heedless of precaution, his only thought being, apparently, that harm might come to Betsey.

"That place beyond I've never explored," he said; "wait here a minute until I get to the top of that ridge of bricks. The weight of both of us might make it begin to slide."

"Don't," she objected, "it doesn't look safe at all. Can't you go to the other—"

He had left her protests unheeded and had clambered half way up the slope of broken debris, when she saw it begin to tremble under his feet, then