Nay, am I not sure that it had not?
Do I not remember, years later, peeping into a certain room, the walls of which are covered with works of art of a character calculated to send any aesthetic person mad, and seeing her, sitting on the floor, before a red brick mansion, containing two rooms and a kitchen; and are not her hands trembling with delight as she arranges the three real tin plates upon the dresser?
And does she not knock at the real brass knocker upon the real front door until it comes off, and I have to sit down beside her on the floor and screw it on again?
Perhaps, however, it is unwise for me to recall these things, and bring them forward thus in evidence against her, for cannot she in turn laugh at me?
Did not I also assist in the arrangement and appointment of that house beautiful?
We differed on the matter of the drawing-room carpet, I recollect.

Ethelbertha fancied a dark blue velvet, but I felt sure, taking the wall-paper into consideration, that some shade of terra-cotta would harmonise best.

She agreed with me in the end, and we manufactured one out of an old chest protector.

It had a really charming effect, and gave a delightfully warm tone to the room.

The blue velvet we put in the kitchen.