on constructed all his plans.

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FOUR.

The Clayhanger sitting-room, which served as both dining-room and
drawing-room, according to the more primitive practices of those days,
was over one half of the shop, and looked on Duck Square. Owing to its
northern aspect it scarcely ever saw the sun. The furniture followed
the universal fashion of horse-hair, mahogany, and wool embroidery.
There was a piano, with a high back-fretted wood over silk pleated in
rays from the centre; a bookcase whose lower part was a cupboard; a
sofa; and a large leather easy-chair which did not match the rest of the
room. This easy-chair had its back to the window and its front legs a
little towards the fireplace, so that Mr Clayhanger could read his
newspaper with facility in daytime. At night the light fell a little
awkwardly from the central chandelier, and Mr Clayhanger, if he
happened to be reading, would continually shift his chair an inch or two
to left or right, backwards or forwards, and would also continually
glance up at the chandelier, as if accusing it of not doing its best. A
common sight in the sitting-room was Mr Clayhanger balanced on a chair,
the table having been pushed away, screwing the newest burner into the
chandelier. When he was seated in his easy-chair the piano could not be
played, because there was not sufficient space for the stool between the
piano and his chair; nor could the fire be made up without disturbing
him, because the japanned coal-box was on the same side of the
hearth-rug as the chair. Thus, when the fire languished and Mr
Clayhanger neglected it, the children had either to ask permission to
step over his legs, or suggest that he should attend to the fire
himself. Occasionally, when he was in one of his gay moods, he would
humorously impede the efforts of the fire-maker with his feet, and if
the fire-maker was Clara or Edwin, the child would tickle him, which
brought him to his senses and forced him to shout: "None o' that! None
o' that!"

The position of Mr Clayhanger's easy-chair--a detail apparently
trifling--was in reality a strongly influencing factor in the family
life, for it meant that the father's presence obsessed the room. And it
could not be altered, for it depended on the window; the window was too
small to be quite efficient. When the children reflected upon the
history of their childhood they saw one impor