CHAPTER III.
The simple plan on which the house at Farley Manor was built may be told in a few words. A broad corridor ran the whole length of the house, out of which the various sitting-rooms on the ground floor opened. On ascending the circular stairs, which were in the centre of the building, a similar corridor led, on the right hand, to the bedrooms of the family, on the left to those of the guests. Elizabeth's spacious studio, her bedroom, and a small dressing-room occupied by her maid, were on one side of this passage; on the other, Mr. and Mrs. Shaw's bedroom, two dressing-rooms, and a bath-room. The circular staircase, lit by a domed skylight, divided these from the guest-chambers, though there was a passage to right and left of the banisters on the landing which united the two portions of the corridor. At the extreme end, next to the door of Elizabeth's room, was a French window, opening upon a stone balcony, which commanded a view of the distant hills and the winding river, and many an old timbered farmhouse down the valley.
Here, early in the morning, at sunset, and by moonlight, Elizabeth often stood, watching the long blue shadows shorten as the sun rose higher, or lengthen as the golden light declined. She seldom went to bed
