The sitting room

(1992 Memoirs)
I shall explain the [Ellman] house to you.  You came up on a half-foot porch which ran across the front of the house, gray in color.  You came in quickly and right before you was the narrow carpeted stairs taking you up.  To the left was an old door to the living room (called the "sitting room," not the "parlor"), furnished with a couch, dark green, with a raised head but no back.  A large rocker held us both when, behind lace curtains, we watched the crowds go by.