It was not so solid and noble as the other, but it had sundry little touches of later times, which his father had always characterized as wasteful follies.

For one thing, it was elevated ostentatiously far above the road-level upon terraces surmounted by a flight of stone steps.

It fairly looked down, like any spirit of a younger age, upon the older house, which might have been regarded in a way as its progenitor.
The smoke was coming out of the kitchen chimney in the ell.

Lot Gordon looked across.

Burr was clearing the snow from the stone steps over the terraces.