Una barandilla de hierro, incrustada en mampostería desmoronada, separaba el estrecho jardín delantero de la carretera, y a ambos lados de la puerta —a la que se accedía por cinco escalones poco profundos— crecían dos pequeños tejos, pulcramente cortados y podados en forma de conos de verde apagado. Estos tejos poseían algún significado mágico, que el profesor Braddock explicaba de vez en cuando a los visitantes ocasionales interesados en asuntos ocultos; pues, entre otras cosas egipcias, el arqueólogo investigaba la magia de los Hijos de Khem e insistía en que había más verdad que superstición en sus encantamientos.
Braddock used all the vast rooms of the ground floor to house his collection of antiquities, which he had acquired through many laborious years. He dwelt entirely in this museum, as his bedroom adjoined his study, and he frequently devoured his hurried meals amongst the brilliantly tinted mummy cases. The embalmed dead populated his world, and only now and then, when Lucy insisted, did he ascend to the first floor, which was her particular abode. Here was the drawing-room, the dining-room and Lucy's boudoir; here also were sundry bedrooms, furnished and unfurnished, in one of which Miss Kendal slept, while the others remained vacant for chance visitors, principally from the scientific world. The third story was devoted to the cook, her husband—who acted as gardener—and to the house parlor maid, a composite domestic, who worked from morning until night in keeping the great house clean. During the day these servants attended to their business in a comfortable basement, where the cook ruled supreme. At the back of the mansion stretched a fairly large kitchen garden, to which the cook's husband devoted his attention. This was the entire domain belonging to the tenant, as, of course, the Professor did not rent