A wave of heat. The ruddy glow of a four bar heater humming in a far corner. blankets in bundles and piles everywhere; over an ornate bed and high backed chairs from another age; their heavily embroidered covers sparkling and reflecting. one pile has a face, wrinkled with age and heavily browed. He is shrouded in blankets but they can not hide the bend in his spine that time has given him. He craddles his face against his hands as if hiding his words and his thoughts from the world outside. The flickering image on a tele-vision screen occupies his eyes while his mind is far away.