I was not very long kept in suspense.

One morning, about two weeks after all had been fitted out so elegantly, while engaged in dusting the chairs, a part of the mahogany ornament in the back of one of them fell off.

On the next day, another showed the same evidence of imperfect workmanship.

A few evenings afterwards, as we sat at the centre table, one of our children leaned on it rather heavily, when there was a sudden crack, and the side upon which he was bearing his weight, swayed down the distance of half an inch or more.

The next untoward event was the dropping of one of its feet by the sofa, and the warping up of a large piece of veneering on the back.