Page:The Lark - E Nesbit, 1922.djvu/77

78 "Certainly not," said Lucilla; "we don't want to look like actresses. I'll go and get the bedspreads."

The bath-chair was very useful in conveying not only Jane—who did not desire to risk the journey on the restored ankle—but the finished overalls and complete tea equipage, scissors, bast, the oilcloth from the kitchen table, and various other desired objects. It made several journeys–the last with a number of glass jampots and a few pretty china vases.

Lucilla hung the board provisionally from the top of the railings by a cord, as pictures are hung. Then she took the ever-useful bath-chair and the bread-knife and went into the garden to cut the flowers.

Jane remained in the garden room. It was a panelled room, small and rather high, with a curious domed ceiling. An unusually wide French window opened on the drive, and on each side of this were casements, so that almost all that side of the room was of clear glass. The room was at the end of the left wing of the house, which, so to speak, balanced the round tower on the right side of the building. Another window, also unusually large, opened on the lawn where the cedars stood. In the corner was a door leading to the stairs down which Jane had tumbled, but this door was now locked. Opposite the cedar window was the fireplace, of carved wood, an elegant Adam design. A corner cupboard charmingly panelled stood between fireplace and French window. There were also cupboards on each side of the cedar window—these set in the thickness of the wall. The floor was of black and white stone, laid diamond-wise.

For furniture there were two low chairs with curved carved backs and soft red and green coloured tapestry seats of the shape associated with the name of the Empress Eugenie; two or three polished beechwood chairs, ladder-backed, rush-bottomed; a large long table and a little round table! A polished pierced brass fender and a dark rug before it completed the furnishing. It would have been a quaint and