The Knight - Chapter 5 The Great de Barral

Renovated certainly the saloon of the Ferndale was to receive the
"strange woman." The mellowness of its old-fashioned, tarnished
decoration was gone. And Anthony looking round saw the glitter, the
gleams, the colour of new things, untried, unused, very bright--too
bright. The workmen had gone only last night; and the last piece of work
they did was the hanging of the heavy curtains which looped midway the
length of the saloon--divided it in two if released, cutting off the
after end with its companion-way leading direct on the poop, from the
forepart with its outlet on the deck; making a privacy within a privacy,
as though Captain Anthony could not place obstacles enough between his
new happiness and the men who shared his life at sea. He inspected that
arrangement with an approving eye then made a particular visitation of
the whole, ending by opening a door which led into a large state-room
made of two knocked into one. It was very well furnished and had,
instead of the usual bedplace of such cabins, an elaborate swinging cot
of the latest pattern. Anthony tilted it a little by way of trial. "The
old man will be very comfortable in here," he said to himself, and
stepped back into the saloon closing the door gently. Then another
thought occurred to him obvious under the circumstances but strangely
enough presenting itself for the first time. "Jove! Won't he get a
shock," thought Roderick Anthony.