He perceived, without accounting for it, that the walls and hangings were complementary in color, that the furniture matched the carpet, and that the pictures on the wall were unusually good.

They were not all highly-colored, naked subjects, as he had been led to expect.

His respect for Mrs.Raimon rose, for he remembered that Mary's home, while just as different from this as Mary was different from Mrs.Raimon, had, after all, something in common--both were beautiful to him, though Mary's home was sweeter, daintier, and homelier.

He was in the midst of an analysis of these subtleties when Mrs.Raimon (as he now determined to call her) returned from changing her dress.
He was amazed at the change in her.

She wore a dark gray gown with almost no ornament, and looked smaller, older, and paler, but incomparably more winning and womanly than she had ever seemed before.
She appeared to be serious and her voice was gentle and winning.
"Well, boy, here you are--under my roof.