A gentleman from Siskyou--sole proprietor of a mill patent now being considered by Maecenas--had confined himself to a rocking-chair and clothes-horse as being trustworthy and familiar; a bolder spirit from Yreka--in treaty for capital to start an independent journal devoted to Maecenas's interests--had got a good deal out of, and indeed all he had INTO, a Louis XVI.

armoire; while a young painter from Sacramento had simply retired into his adjoining bath-room, leaving the glories of his bedroom untarnished.

Suddenly he paused.
He had turned into a smaller passage in order to make a shorter cut through one of the deserted suites of apartments that should bring him to that part of the building where he designed to make his projected improvement, when his feet were arrested on the threshold of a sitting-room.

Although it contained the same decoration and furniture as the other rooms, it looked totally different! It was tasteful, luxurious, comfortable, and habitable.

The furniture seemed to have fallen into harmonious position; even the staring decorations of the walls and ceiling were toned down by sprays of laurel and red-stained manzanito boughs with their berries, apparently fresh plucked from the near canyon.