'Perfectly safe, I assure you,' he added, laughing, and holding the door
open. 'You shall see what a state of disorganization I am in--boxes on
boxes, furniture, straw, crockery, in every form of transposition. An
old woman is in the back quarters somewhere, beginning to put things to
rights.... You know the inside of the house, I dare say?'

'I have never been in.'

'O well, come along. Here, you see, they have made a door through, here,
they have put a partition dividing the old hall into two, one part is
now my parlour; there they have put a plaster ceiling, hiding the old
chestnut-carved roof because it was too high and would have been chilly
for me; you see, being the original hall, it was open right up to the
top, and here the lord of the manor and his retainers used to meet and
be merry by the light from the monstrous fire which shone out from
that monstrous fire-place, now narrowed to a mere nothing for my grate,
though you can see the old outline still. I almost wish I could have had
it in its original state.'

'With more romance and less comfort.'

'Yes, exactly. Well, perhaps the wish is not deep-seated. You will see
how the things are tumbled in anyhow, packing-cases and all. The only
piece of ornamental furniture yet unpacked is this one.'

'An organ?'

'Yes, an organ. I made it myself, except the pipes. I opened the case
this afternoon to commence soothing myself at once. It is not a very
large one, but quite big enough for a private house. You play, I dare
say?'

'The piano. I am not at all used to an organ.'

'You would soon acquire the touch for an organ, though it would spoil
your touch for the piano. Not that that matters a great deal. A piano
isn't much as an instrument.'

'It is the fashion to say so now. I think it is quite good enough.'

'That isn't altogether a right sentiment about things being good
enough.'

'No--no. What I mean is, that the men who despise pianos do it as a rule
from their teeth, merely for fashion's sake, because cleverer men have
said it before them--not from the experience of their ears.'

Now Cytherea all at once broke into a blush at the consciousness of a
great snub she had been guilty of in her eagerness to explain herself.
He charitably expressed by a look that he did not in the least mind her
blunder, if it were one; and this attitude forced him into a position of
mental superiority which vexed her.

'I play for my private amusement only,' he said. '