Chapter 184

AND OTHER STORIES 171 circular green figures. At the windows were curtains of snowy white jaconet muslin; they were tolerably full, and hung decisively , perhaps rather formally, in sharp parallel plaits to the floor — just to the floor. The walls were papered with a French paper of great delicacy, a silver ground with a faint green cord running zigzag throughout. Its expanse was relieved merely by three of Julien’s exquisite lithographs d trois crayons , fastened to the wall without frames. One of these drawings was a scene of Oriental luxury, or rather voluptuousness; another was a “carnival piece,” spirited beyond compare ; the third was a Greek female head: a face so divinely beautiful, and yet of an expression so provokingly indeterminate, never before arrested my attention. The more substantial furniture consisted of a round table, a few chairs (including a large rocking-chair), and a sofa, or rather “settee” ; its material was plain maple painted a creamy white, slightly interstriped with green ; the seat of cane. The chairs and table were “to match,” but the forms of all had evidently been designed by the same brain which planned “the grounds” — it is impossible to conceive anything more graceful. On the table were a few books, a large, square, crystal bottle of some novel perfume, a plain ground-glass astral (not solar) lamp with an Italian shade, and a large vase of resplendently-blooming flowers. Flowers, indeed, of gorgeous colors and delicate odor formed the sole mere decoration of the apartment. The fireplace was nearly filled with a vase of brilliant geranium. On a triangular shelf in each angle of the room stood also a similar vase, varied only as to its lovely contents. One or two smaller bouquets adorned the mantel, and late violets clustered about the open windows. It is not the purpose of this work to do more than give, in detail, a picture of Mr. Landor’s residence as I found it.