It was larger than it had looked in the distance; a veritable palace.

An architect had received _carte-blanche_, and disporting himself right royally, had designed a facade which it would be hard to beat: at any rate, in England.
Stafford eyed it rather grumpily.

Most Englishmen dislike ostentation and display; and to Stafford the place seemed garish and "loud." Howard surveyed it with cynical admiration.
"A dream of Kubla Kahn--don't know whether I've got the name right: poem of Coleridge's, you know--but of course you don't know; you don't go in for poetry.

Well I'm bound to admit that it's striking, not to say beautiful," he went on, as the horses sprang up the last ascent and rattled on in an impatient, high-spirited trot along the level road to the terrace fronting the entrance.
As Stafford pulled up, a couple of grooms came forward; the hall door--enamelled in peacock blue--opened and a butler and two footmen in rich maroon livery appeared.

They came down the white marble steps in stately fashion and ranged themselves as if the ceremony were of vast importance, and as Howard and Stafford got down they bowed with the air of attendants receiving royalty.
As Stafford, flinging the reins to one of the grooms, got down, he caught sight of a line of liveried servants in the hall, and he frowned slightly.
Like most young Englishmen, he hated ostentation, which he designated as "fuss." "Rub 'em down well, Pottinger," he said, and he leisurely patted the horses while the gorgeous footmen watched with solemn impressiveness.
"We've brought 'em along pretty well," he said, turning to Howard, who stood beside him with a fine and cynical smile; then he went up the white marble steps slowly, carefully ignoring the footmen who had drawn themselves into a line as if they were a guard of honour, specially drilled to receive him.
Followed by Howard, his cynical smile still lingering about his thin lips, Stafford entered the hall.
It was Oriental in shape and design, with a marble fountain in the centre, and carved arches before the various passages.