"Yes, it's a very fine building, and in the good old-fashioned style," he said.

"I like so much the court in front of the steps.

Was that always so?" "Oh, no!" he said, and his face beamed with pleasure.

" If you could only have seen that court last spring!" And he began, at first rather diffidently, but more and more carried away by the subject as he went on, to draw her attention to the various details of the decoration of his house and garden.