this floor worth showing you. My father brought the wainscoting from an
old English country-house in Dorsetshire. My father's people were
Torries, sir, and kept up their connection with the old country."

It was a delightful room into which Dan now admitted the light of day,
drawing aside the heavy green curtains from the eastern windows. It was
wainscoted from floor to cornice in old black English oak, curiously and
elaborately carved, and divided into long narrow panels. The ceiling, of
similar materials and alike elaborately decorated, was supported by heavy
transverse beams that seemed solid and strong enough to support the roof
of a cathedral. On one side two windows opened upon the gallery and court
and looked out upon the Cove, on the other side stood a cabinet. It was
the most striking piece of furniture in the room, of enormous dimensions
and beautifully carved on the doors of the cupboards below and on the
top-pieces between the mirrors were lion's heads of almost life-size.
Opposite the heavy door, by which they had entered, was a large
fireplace, containing a pair of elaborately ornamented brass and irons.
There was not otherwise a great deal of furniture,--two or three tables,
some chairs, a deep window-seat, a writing-desk of French design; but
all, except this last, in keeping with the character of the room, and all
brought across the seas from the old Dorsetshire mansion, from which
Peter Frost had obtained the interior.

"_Charmant_!" exclaimed the Marquis. "You have a jewel, _mon ami_; a bit
of old England or of old France in the heart of America; a room one finds
not elsewhere in the States. It is a _creation superbe_."

With enthusiastic interest he moved about, touching each article of
furniture, examining with care the two of three old English landscapes
that had been let into panels on the west side of the room, pausing in