He looked puzzled, and Mercy went on,-- "Why, Mr.Allen, I should like to have our home perfectly beautiful, just like the most beautiful houses I have read about in books.

I should like to have the walls hung full of pictures, and the rooms filled full of books; and I should like to have great greenhouses full of all the rare and exquisite flowers of the whole world.

I'd like one house like the house you told me of, full of all the orchids, and another full of only palms and ferns.

I should like to wear always the costliest of silks, very plain and never of bright colors, but heavy and soft and shining; and laces that were like fleecy clouds when they are just scattering.

I should like to be perfectly beautiful, and to have perfectly beautiful people around me.