ey. She
struck a match and lighted a candle. "Now if you please," she added,
going on before me down the dark passage. I saw now from her tottering
walk that she was much older and much more feeble than I had imagined.
I followed her and saw signs of dust and neglect on every side; the
house, I should say, had stood empty for many years. But as I followed
the old lady one thing struck me, and that was, that instead of the
common candle which I would have expected her to use under the
circumstances, the one she carried in its glass protector was evidently
of fine wax. She took me down a long passage, and we came to a flight
of stairs leading to the kitchens, I imagined.

"We must go down here," she announced. "I am sorry to have to take you
to the basement, but it cannot be helped." Again I had some slight
misgivings, but I braced myself. I had made up my mind and I would go
forward.

I followed her as she went laboriously step by step down the flight.
At the bottom was the usual long basement passage, such as I expected
to see, but with this difference, it was swept and evidently well kept.

The old lady led on to the extreme end of this passage towards the back
of the house, then opened a door on the left hand and walked in. At
her invitation I followed her and found her busily lighting more wax
candles fixed in old-fashioned sconces on the walls. As each candle
burned up I was astonished to find the sort of room it revealed to me.

It was a lady's boudoir beautifully furnished and filled with works of
art; china, choice pictures, and old silver abounded on every side; on
the hearth burned a bright fire; on the mantelpiece was a very handsome
looking-glass framed in oak. My companion, having lit six candles,
went to the windows to draw down the blinds. I interposed and saved
her this exertion by doing it myself.

I then became aware that the house, like so many others in Bath, was
built on the side of a hill, the front door being on a level with the
street, whilst the lower back windows even commanded lovely views over
the beautiful valley, the town, and the distant hills beyond.

Below me innumerable lights twinkled out in the streets through the
misty air, while here and there brightly lit tram cars wound through
the town or mounted the hills. Thick though the air was the sight was
exceedingly pretty.

I could now understand how even a room situated as this was in the
basement of a house could be