Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ill The name was no indication. None remembered that Dowlands was the name of a famous sixteenth century lutenist, and there was nothing in the snug masonry to suggest an asstheticism of any kind. The viols and virginals surprised the visitor coming in from the street, and he stayed his steps as he might on the threshold of a fairy land. The villas, of which Dowlands was one, were a builder’s experiment. They had been built in the hopes of attracting wealthy business West-end shopkeepers; but Dulwich had failed to become a fashionable suburb. Many had remained empty, and when Mr Innes had entered into negotiations with the house agents, they declared themselves willing to entertain all his proposals, and finally he had acquired a lease at a greatly reduced rental. In accordance with his and Mrs Innes’s wishes, the house had been considerably altered. Partition walls had been taken away, and practically the whole ground floor converted into class - rooms, leaving free only one little room at the back where they had their meals. During his wife’s lifetime the house suited their requirements. The train service from Victoria was frequent, and on the back of their notepaper was printed a little map, whereby pupils coming and going from the station could find their way. On the second floor was Mr Innes’s workshop, where he restored the old instruments or made new ones after the old models. There was Evelyn’s bedroom?her mother had re-furnished it before she died?and she often sat there; it was, in truth, the most habitable room in the house. There was Evelyn’s old nursery, nowan unoccupied room; and there were two other empty rooms. She had tried to convert one into a little oratory. She had placed there a statue of the Virgin, and hung a crucifix on the wall, and bought a pri…
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