The Brigand's Cave
The drawing-room of 'The Cave' was now elaborately furnished. A large mirror in a richly gilt frame, reached from the carved marble mantelpiece to the cornice. A magnificent clock in an alabaster case stood in the centre of the mantelpiece and was flanked by two exquisitely painted and gilded vases of Dresden ware. The windows were draped with costly hangings and the floor was covered with a luxurious carpet and expensive rugs; and sumptuously upholstered couches and easy-chairs added to the comfort of the apartment, which was warmed by the immense fire of coal and oak logs blazing and crackling in the grate.
This was Mr Grinder's first visit at the house, and he expressed his admiration of the manner in which the ceiling and the walls were decorated, remarking that he had always liked this 'ere Japanese style.
'Hardly wot you'd call Japanese, though, is it?' observed Didlum, looking round with the air of a connoisseur. 'I should be inclined to say it was rather more of the—er—Chinese or Egyptian.'
'Moorish,' explained Mr Sweater with a smile. 'I got the idear at the Paris Exhibition. It's simler to the decorations in the Alambra, the palace of the Sultan of Morocco. That clock there is in the same style.'
The case of the clock referred to, which stood on a table in a corner of the room, was of fretwork, in the form of an Indian Mosque, with a pointed dome and pinnacles. This was the case that Mary Linden had sold to Didlum, who had had it stained a dark colour, polished and further improved it by substituting a clock of more suitable design than the one it originally held. Mr Sweater noticing it in Didlum's window had purchased it seeing that the design was similar in character to the painted decorations on the ceiling and walls of his drawing-room.
'I went to the Paris Exhibition meself,' said Grinder, when everyone had admired the exquisite workmanship of the clock-case. 'I remember 'avin a look at the moon through that big telescope. I was never so surprised in me life; you can see it quite plain, and it's round, not flat like a plate, but round like a football.'
'Of course it is,' said Rushton, rather scornfully. 'But what gets over me, is this: according to science, the earth turns round on its axle at the rate of about twenty miles a minit.
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