Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/251

Rh little view, and it seemed gloomy, shut in from the ordinary world outside.

Miss South, perhaps, read Julia’s thoughts.

“Come inside for a moment,” she said, “and let me show you our sitting-room.” The little hall into which  they stepped from the piazza was covered with plain  matting. But inside the sitting-room, what a change from the simple surroundings outside! A large cashmere rug covered the floor almost completely. A tall folding screen with painted sides, across one corner, softened the severity  of the angles. A Persian scarf draped the mantelpiece, and near a window was a small table with a handsome  afternoon-tea-set of silver and china. The round centre table was laden with books and magazines, and two or  three easy-chairs and footstools added to the comfort of  the room. Several of the pieces of furniture, and some of the pictures on the wall were familiar to Julia. She had often seen them at Madame Du Launay’s house in town.

“That is it,” she said. “You are trying to make your grandmother feel perfectly at home by having all her  own things about her. What a fine idea!”

“It is just the same in her bedroom,” said Miss South, smiling, “and I really believe that this is what makes  her so contented. At her age, you know, it is very hard  to be moved, even for a few months, far from one’s own  familiar belongings. It is because she dreaded this kind of change, I believe, that my grandmother has been so  unwilling of late years to go away from the city in the  summer. Why, I found that she had not had any change