Michael J. Leonard
Division of Undergraduate Studies
The Pennsylvania State University
226 Grange Building
University Park, PA 16802-6702
e-mail: mjl3@psu.edu





The Mansion

By Henry van Dyke



There was an air of calm and reserved opulence about
the Weightman mansion that spoke not of money squandered,
but of wealth prudently applied. Standing on a corner of
the Avenue no longer fashionable for residence, it looked upon
the swelling tide of business with an expression of complacency
and half-disdain.

The house was not beautiful. There was nothing in its straight
front of
chocolate-colored stone, its heavy cornices, its broad, staring
windows of
plate glass, its carved and bronze-bedecked mahogany doors at the
top of the wide stoop, to charm the eye or fascinate the