Geoffrey's Victory by Mrs Georgie Sheldon — page 140: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

136 A REMARKABLE DISCOVERY. of which Robert Dale had spent so many years of his life. It wasa long ride, though a delightful one, through the spicy pine woods and over the grass-grown cart-path, where only mule teams passed now and then in hauling great logs to market. ~ It was nearly toon when Everet came in sight of the Hermitage, and he found it not such a rude affair, after all, as he had pictured in his imagination from the de- scriptions he had heard of ft. He saw that it must have been quite an expensive structure, for if was built mostly of stone, while every bit of the work had been done in the most thorough man- ner. It made quite a pretty picture, standing there beneath two huge pine trees, and with the glossy ivy climbing thickly all about its rough walls. hanging in graceful fes- toons from the overlapping eaves and the mullioned win- dows. It was composed of but one story, and a couple of granite steps led up to the one door, which was set in the center of the structure. This was not locked, and enter- ing, Everet found himself in a narrow hall, which divided the building through the middle, and was lighted by a window at the other end. On each side there were two rooms. On the right was what appeared to have been the cook- ing and eating-room, fora great dresser had been built upon one side; a wide fire-place, with andirons and an old-fashioned crane, was opposite the entrance, and a small table, with two chairs, stood in the center of the room. Back of this there was a smaller apartment, probably the servants’ quarters, and on the opposite side of the hall there were two similar rooms. In the front one there stood a plain but solid desk, and a large arm-chair before it. Near it was an iron safe, but the door was swung partly open, and Everet could see that if was empty, and he thought that it had probably been used as a receptacle for the valuable manuscript of which his father had spoken. A couple of book-caseg, reaching from floor to ceiling, had been built into the wall unon two sides of the room, like the dresser in the kitchen. Back of this there was another bedroom, its only furni- ture consisting of a single bedstead of iron. The walls were all of rough stone, the crevices being COmicloOoks.€O