The spacious rooms, newly painted and decked out in rich, modern furniture, looked still more spacious.

In place of the whitewashed ceilings and dingy papered walls, graceful frescoes spread their light figures, entrancing the eyes with their marvelous semblances.

The great hall received you with a statelier formality than before; for it, too, had received also its gift of painting, and its golden broideries.

As you passed from room to room, you said--"This is the palace of a prince--not the abode of a citizen." The grounds around the mansion had been subject to as thorough a renovation as the mansion itself.

The old gate had given place to one of larger proportions, and more imposing design.