The doors, too, were numbered all in red, and it was before No. 13 that Mariana stopped. It opened to her touch, and together they entered.
“This is the room I work in,” said Mariana, and again turned on one feeble light. It seemed the only one in the chamber.
The black rafters of oak hung low above their heads, and their heaviness perhaps helped to increase the gloomy aspect of the place. A long table of deal ran down the centre, with a chair at either end. This table was covered with a white cloth reaching the ground on either side.
Two chests of oak, shabby and worn, were the only articles of furniture the room possessed. The walls were whitewashed. Here and there the plaster had fallen from them, with a dispiriting effect. There was neither fireplace nor window in the room.
“Can you work in here?” Rosalie asked, looking round with an involuntary shiver.
“Yes. One becomes accustomed to surroundings. I never notice them; I’m too absorbed.”
She went to the table and drew away the cloth, folding it, and placing it upon one of the vacant chairs. Below, a shimmer of satin, and gold, and silver, all strikingly in contrast to the bareness and poorness of the room, met the eye.
“How lovely!” said Rosalie, drawing her breath. “Do you know, I thought that big white cloth was the material, and it looked to my eyes more like a shroud.”
“This is only the material,” said Mariana. “I finished it the day you came, after being engaged on it three years. It is all hand-spun and woven, but now I’ve put the loom and spinning-wheel away in those big chests. One does not want too many things about.”
“Oh! it is knowledge one acquires. It needs a certain kind of brain and a given pattern, that is all.”
Then she went over to one of the chests and opened it, and took from it a parcel which she untied. It contained a quantity of most lovely lace, the like of which Rosalie had never seen before.
“No; it belongs to the Master. I found it in the lumber rooms among the attics, and asked him for it, and so he gave it to me.”
“Gave it to you? It looks almost priceless.”
“I know—reckoned from some standpoints. But I liked the design. It is lovers’ knots, and sprays of lily of the valley. Have you noticed it?”