So he would not hear of any alterations in the furnishings of his villa, except those suggested by his ideas of sanitation.

Otherwise it had been kept just as my grandfather had left it to him.

In particular uncle could not be brought to like the newly popular C-shaped dining sofas, which all Rome and all fashionables all over Italy and the provinces had so acclaimed and so promptly adopted along with circular-topped dining-tables.

My _triclinium_ still held grandfather's square-topped table and the three square sofas about it.

Uncle's will, in fact, had stipulated that no furnishings of the villa must be altered within five years of the date of his death.