Suddenly I receive a Titian, by the post, to hang on my wall--a Greek bas-relief to stick over my chimney-piece.

The key of a beautiful edifice is thrust into my hand, and I'm told to walk in and admire.

My poor boy, you've been sadly ungrateful, and now you had better keep very quiet and never grumble again." The sentiment of these reflexions was very just; but it was not exactly true that Ralph Touchett had had a key put into his hand.

His cousin was a very brilliant girl, who would take, as he said, a good deal of knowing; but she needed the knowing, and his attitude with regard to her, though it was contemplative and critical, was not judicial.

He surveyed the edifice from the outside and admired it greatly; he looked in at the windows and received an impression of proportions equally fair.