His audience endured him because the experience was new, and their ears caught the rattle of tea-cups in the adjoining library.
Dorothea sat counting her guests, and assuring herself that the number of teacups would suffice.

She had heard the lecture many times before, and with repetition its sonorous periods had lost hold upon her, although her brother had been at pains to model them upon Gibbon.
But the scene impressed her sharply, and she carried away a very lively picture of it.

The old Roman villa had been built about a hollow square open to the sky, and this square now formed the great hall of Bayfield.

Deep galleries of two stories surrounded it, in place of the old colonnaded walk.

Out of these opened the principal rooms of the house, and above them, upon a circular lantern of clear glass, was arched a painted dome.