he wandered slowly around the room , fingering the ornaments : a meissen figurine of a woman , a dove perched on her hand , taking a comfit from her lips ; a longcase clock with three dials , showing the time , the barometric pressure , and the phase of the moon ; a tobacco humidor made of a dark , unfamiliar kind of wood that he thought might be african ; a footed silver bowl full of sugared violets , jumbled and broken among a handful of ginger-nut biscuits ; a vicious-looking club with a peculiar knob at the end ; a curious piece of something ...