od breast-high bookcases with olive green curtains, their tops
serving as shelves for a multitude of small ornaments, casts of animals
by Fremiet and Barye, Donatello's lovely _femme inconnue_, beer steins,
a little bronze clock, a calendar, and a yellow satin slipper of
Flossie's in which Vandover kept Turkish cigarettes. The writing-desk
with the huge blue blotter in a silver frame, the paper-cutter, and the
enormous brass inkstand filled the corner to the right of the divan,
while drawn up to it was the huge leather chair, the chair in which the
Old Gentleman had died. In the drawer of the desk Vandover kept his
father's revolver; he never thought of loading it; of late he had only
used it to drive tacks with, when he could not find the hammer. Opposite
the divan, on the other side of the room, was the famous tiled stove
with the flamboyant ornaments; back of this the mantel, and over the
mantel a row of twelve grotesque heads in plaster, with a space between
each for a pipe. To the left in the angle of the room stood the Japanese
screen in black and gold, and close to this a tea-table of bamboo and a
piano-lamp with a great shade of crinkly red paper that Turner Ravis had
given to Vandover one Christmas. The bay window was filled by the
window-seat, covered with corduroy like the divan and heaped with
cushions, one of them of flaming yellow, the one spot of vivid colour
amidst the dull browns and sombre blues of the room. A great sideboard
with decanters and glasses and chafing-dishes faced the window from the
end wall. The entrance to the studio opened to the left of it, which
entrance Vandover had hung with curtains of dust-brown plush.

The casts of the Assyrian _bas-reliefs_ were against the wall upon
either side of the window. There were three of them, two representing
scenes from the life of the king, the third the wounded lioness which
Vandover never wearied of admiring.

Upon the wall over the mantel hung two very large photogravures, one of
Rembrandt's "Night Watch," the other a portrait of Velasquez
representing a young man with a hunting spear. Above one of the
bookcases was an admirable reproduction of the "Mona Lisa"; above the
other, a carbon print of a Vandyke, a Dutch lady in a silk gown and very
high ruff.

By the side of the "Mona Lisa," however, was a cheap brass rack stuffed
with photographs: actresses in tights, French quadrille dancers, high
kickers, and chorus girls.

In the studio, Vandov