[Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac]@TWC D-Link bookSons of the Soil CHAPTER XIII 7/31
Such was the ground-floor.
The first floor contained three bedrooms, above them a small attic chamber. A wood-shed, a coach-house, and a stable adjoined the kitchen, and formed two sides of a square around the courtyard.
Above these rather flimsy buildings were lofts containing hay and grain, a fruit-room, and one servant's-chamber. A poultry-yard, the stable, and a pigsty faced the house across the courtyard. The garden, about an acre in size and enclosed by walls, was a true priest's garden; that is, it was full of wall-fruit and fruit-trees, grape-arbors, gravel-paths, closely trimmed box-trees, and square vegetable patches, made rich with the manure from the stable. Within, the large room, panelled in wainscot, was hung with old tapestry.
The walnut furniture, brown with age and covered with stuffs embroidered in needle-work, was in keeping with the wainscot and with the ceiling, which was also panelled.
The latter had three projecting beams, but these were painted, and between them the space was plastered. The mantel, also in walnut, surmounted by a mirror in the most grotesque frame, had no other ornament than two brass eggs standing on a marble base, each of which opened in the middle; the upper half when turned over showed a socket for a candle.
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