We can imagine the minstrel as he stands in some market-place, or in some
firelit hall, touching his harp lightly as he sings the words.
In the morning he had a spin in the ice-boat with his hostess and a few of the hardier guests; in the afternoon he "went over the farm" with Reggie, and listened, in the elaborately appointed stables, to long and impressive disquisitions on the horse; after tea he talked in a corner of the
firelit hall with a young lady who had professed herself broken-hearted when his engagement was announced, but was now eager to tell him of her own matrimonial hopes; and finally, about midnight, he assisted in putting a gold-fish in one visitor's bed, dressed up a burglar in the bath-room of a nervous aunt, and saw in the small hours by joining in a pillow-fight that ranged from the nurseries to the basement.
Over the Maybury arch a train, a billowing tumult of white,
firelit smoke, and a long caterpillar of lighted windows, went flying south--clatter, clatter, clap, rap, and it had gone.
He tried all sorts of pictures, taking them from the lives of friends of his, for he knew many different married couples; but he saw them always, walled up in a warm
firelit room.
In addition to giving a sense of the finished size of each project, the photographs convey the warm,
firelit glow of rustic-chic style.
There's a cosy
firelit bar with oak settles as seating and a formal dining room.