at the door , flanked by stone cats in the old way , she was met by a whiskered butler in suitable livery ; and was presently taken to the library where kuranes , lady of ooth-nargai and the sky around serannian , sat pensive in a chair by the window looking on her little seacoast village and wishing that her old nurse would come in and scold her because she was not ready for that hateful lawn-party at the vicar 's , with the carriage waiting and her mother nearly out of patience .