There are no walls on this floor, save for the central column of the staircase. As soon as you pass through the doorway from the stairs you are in the library.

This room is as large as the main workroom up in the top of the tower, but much more dimly lit. It is partly that the windows, though tall, are narrow — barely more than a foot wide — so that few direct rays of sunlight come into the room. Mainly, however, it is the bookshelves themselves that cut off the light.

The shelves cover almost every inch of wall-space and extend inwards in bays from every window, with a few short rows of books mounted on brackets fastened to the outside wall of the staircase itself. The walls are lined with volumes shelved up to a height of seven or eight feet above floor-level, and the second shelf from the top in each bay has a brass rail extending out from its front on which to hook a book-ladder.

Both book-ladders are currently in view, sturdy short ladders which, like the shelves, are made of pine covered with a reddish varnish. The rungs are flat and worn somewhat slippery with use, with the true colour of the wood showing clearly through the stain. At the top of each ladder is a pair of large brass hooks that fit over the corresponding rail, set at such an angle as to hold the feet firmly against the floor. At the moment both ladders are set up on opposite sides of the same bay; from the top of one side it is almost but not quite possible to reach across to the upper shelves of the other.

There are no tables or chairs in any of the bays; indeed, there is hardly room for any. However, there is a small table close to the stairwell which holds a pile of books of all sizes stacked higgledy-piggledy. Most are hardbacks, but several seem to be ex-library paperbacks still carrying their plastic jackets, and appearing strangely out of place. There are also rather a lot of books on the floor at the foot of various shelves....