Oh! this is delicious--quite delicious!" This exclamation was caused by the sight which the architect had invited the prefect to come and enjoy, and which was certainly droll enough.
The front of the gate-keeper's house was quite grown over with ivy which framed the door and window in its long runners.

Amidst the greenery hung numbers of cages with starlings, blackbirds, and smaller singing-birds.
The wide door of the little house stood open, giving a view into a tolerably spacious and gaily-painted room.

In the background stood a clay model of an Apollo of admirable workmanship; above, and near this, the wall was hung with lutes and lyres of various size and form.
In the middle of the room, and near the open door, was a table, on which stood a large wicker cage containing several nests of young goldfinches, and with green food twined among the osiers.

There were, too, a large wine-jar and an ivory goblet decorated with fine carving.

Close to the drinking-vessels, on the stone top of the table, rested the arm of an elderly woman who had fallen asleep in the arm-chair in which she sat.
Notwithstanding the faint grey moustache that marked her upper-lip and the pronounced ruddiness of her fore head and cheeks, she looked pleasant and kind.