enormous bedstead, style Louis XIV, and a very handsome wardrobe, Louis
XV. In the middle of these venerable old things a white porcelain stove,
and the little toilet-table, covered with a pretty oilcloth, seemed out
of place and to mar the dull harmony. Curtained with an old-fashioned
rose-coloured chintz, on which were bouquets of heather, so faded that
the colour had become a scarcely perceptible pink, the enormous bedstead
preserved above all the majesty of its great age.

But what pleased Angelique more than anything else was the little
balcony on which the window opened. Of the two original windows, one
of them, that at the left, had been closed by simply fastening it with
nails, and the balcony, which formerly extended across the front of
the building, was now only before the window at the right. As the lower
beams were still strong, a new floor had been made, and above it an
iron railing was firmly attached in place of the old worm-eaten wooden
balustrade. This made a charming little corner, a quiet nook under the
gable point, the leaden laths of which had been renewed at the beginning
of the century. By bending over a little, the whole garden-front of the
house could be seen in a very dilapidated state, with its sub-basement
of little cut stones, its panels ornamented with imitation bricks, and
its large bay window, which to-day had been made somewhat smaller. The
roof of the great porch of the kitchen-door was covered with zinc. And
above, the interduces of the top, which projected three feet or more,
were strengthened by large, upright pieces of wood, the ends of which
rested on the string-course of the first floor. All this gave to the
balcony an appearance of being in a perfect vegetation of timber, as if
in the midst of a forest of old wood, which was green with wallflowers
and moss.

Since she occupied the chamber, Angelique had spent many hours there,