premise: Alone in the big drawing-room where Annette's choice of bright fabrics had fought hardest, albeit still without winning against her dead in-laws ' passion for darkpanelled gloom Maxim went straight to the telephone. It was the same old-fashioned type as Miss Tuckey's and he unscrewed the mouthpiece carefully but found nothing extra inside. Looking around he remembered it was difficult to plant bugs actually inside panelling but even his half-trained eye could see that the elaborate cornices and mouldings gave a myriad opportunities to a good wire man.
hypothesis: the elaborate cornices and mouldings gave a myriad opportunities to a good wire man