Sea Mew Abbey by Florence Warden

"Oh," began Mrs. Bean, with a fat and comfortable sigh, "I am glad to have you here, I declare. Ever since the Captain told me, in his short way, that you were coming, I've been that anxious to see you, you might have been my own sister."

"That was very good of you," said Freda, who was busily taking in all the details of the house, the wide, shallow stairs, low ceilings, and oaken panelling; the air of neglect which hung about it all; the draughts which made her shiver in the corridors and passages. She compared it with the farm-house she had just left, so much less handsome, so much more comfortable. How wide these passages were! The landing at the top of the staircase was like a room, with a long mullioned window and a wide window-seat. But it was all bare, cold, smelling of mould and dust.