it was the first time that the lawyer had been received in that part of his friend 's quarters ; and he eyed the dingy , windowless structure with curiosity , and gazed round with a distasteful sense of strangeness as he crossed the theatre , once crowded with eager students and now lying gaunt and silent , the tables laden with chemical apparatus , the floor strewn with crates and littered with packing straw , and the light falling dimly through the foggy cupola .