[' The windows in the Wradisley drawing rooms were large one of them a vast shallow 10 bow which seemed to admit the outside into the interior rather than to enlighten the interior with the view of what was outside Mrs Wradisley sat within reach of but not too near a large very red fire a fire which was like the turf outside the growth of generations or at least had not at all the air of having been lighted to day or any recent day It did not flame but glowed steadily adding something to the color of the room but not much to the light Later in the season when larger parties assembled there was tea in the hall for the sportsmen and the ladies who waited for them but Mrs Wradisley thought the hall draughty and much preferred the drawing room which was over furnished after the present mode of drawing rooms but at least warm and free from draughts She was working knitting with white pins or else making mysterious chains and bridges in white wool with a crochet hook her eyes being supposed to be not very strong and this kind of industry the best adapted for them As to what Lucy was doing that defies description She was doing everything 11 and nothing She had something of a modern young lady s contempt for every kind of needlework and then along with that a great admiration for it as something still more superior than the superiority of idleness A needle is one of the things that has this double effect It is the scorn of a great number of highly advanced very cultured and superior feminine people but yet here and there will arise one still more advanced and cultured who loves the old fashioned weapon and speaks of it as a sacred implement of life Lucy followed first one opinion and then another She had half a dozen pieces of work about begun under the influence of one class of her friends abandoned under that of another She had a little studio too where she painted and carved and executed various of the humbler decorative arts which perhaps to tell the truth she enjoyed more than art proper but these details of the young lady s life may be left to show themselves where there is no need of such vanities Lucy was at all events whatever her other qualities might be a most enthusiastic friend 12 ']