The central table was crowned with a tall glass
of exquisitely-arranged grasses and wild flowers, and the choice and
graceful nicknacks round it were such as might be traced to a London
life in the artist world, and among grateful patients.
Brackets with vases and casts here and there projected from the
walls, and some charming crayons and water-colours hung round them.
The plastered walls had already been marked out in panels, and a
growth of frescoes of bulrushes, ivy, and leaves of all kinds was
beginning to overspread them, while on a nearer inspection the leaves
proved to be fast becoming peopled with living portraits of
butterflies and other insects; indeed Mary started at finding herself
in, as she thought, unpleasant proximity to a pair of cockchafers.
"Ah! I tell the children that we shall be suspected of putting those
creatures there as a trial to the old ladies' nerves," said Caroline,
laughing.
"I confess they are startling to those who don't like creeping
things! Have you many old ladies, Carey?"
"Not very many. I fancy they don't take to me more than I take to
them, so we are mutually satisfied."
"But is that a good thing?" said Mary anxiously.
"I don't know," said Carey, indifferently. "At least I do know," she
added, "that I always used to be told I didn't try to make small
talk, and I can do it less than ever now that it is the smallest of
small, and my heart faints from it.
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