Sherlock Holmes Investigates

 

A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the left-hand side of the window.

These articles, with two small wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards and the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old and discolored that it may have dated from the original building of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, taking in every detail of the apartment.

"Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the tassel actually lying upon the pillow.

Vocabulary
Whitewash: A lime-based chemical that colours things pure white.
Fate: Here it means "death".
Homely: Friendly in a plain kind of way.
Gaping: Wide open.
Chest of drawers: Part of bedroom furniture, for shirts, socks etc.
Counterpane: A sheet that goes over the top of the bed to keep it clean in the daytime.
Dressing table: A table with a mirror.
Articles: Here it means "things".
Wickerwork: Made with thin strips of flexible wood.
Save: Here it means "except".
Discoloured: The Colour has changed with time and use.
Drew: Pulled over.
Tassel: An ornamental ending to a piece of rope or cord.