n't she be?" Carmen asked in return. "She has everything she
wants. They both have a little temper; life would be flat without that;
she is a little irritable sometimes; she didn't use to be; and when they
don't agree they let each other alone for a little. I think she is as
happy as anybody can be who is married. Now you are shocked! Well, I
don't know any one who is more in love than she is, and that may be
happiness. She is becoming exactly like Mr. Henderson. You couldn't ask
anything more than that."

If Margaret were really happy, the earl told Miss Forsythe, he was glad,
but it was scarcely the career he would have thought would have suited
her.

Meantime, the great house was approaching completion. Henderson's
palace, in the upper part of the city, had long been a topic for the
correspondents of the country press. It occupied half a square. Many
critics were discontented with it because it did not occupy the whole
square. Everybody was interested in having it the finest residence on
the continent. Why didn't Henderson take the whole block of ground,
build his palace on three sides, with the offices and stables on the
fourth, throw a glass roof over the vast interior court, plant it with
tropical trees and plants, adorn it with flower-beds and fountains,
and make a veritable winter-garden, giving the inhabitants a temperate
climate all the cold months? He might easily have summer in the centre
of the city from November to April. These rich people never know what
to do with their money. Such a place would give distinction to the city,
and compel foreigners to recognize the high civilization of America. A
great deal of fault was found with Henderson privately for his parsimony
in such a splendid opportunity.

Nevertheless it was already one of the sights of the town. Strangers
were taken to see it, as it rose in its simple grandeur. Local reporters
made articles on the progress of the interior whenever they could get an
entrance. It was not ornate enough to please, generally, but those who
admired the old Louvre liked the simplicity of its lines and the dignity
of the elevations. They discovered the domestic note in its quiet
character, and said that the architect had avoided the look of an
"institution" in such a great mass. He was not afraid of dignified wall
space, and there was no nervous anxiety manifested, which would have
belittled it with trivial ornamentation.

Perhaps it was not an American structure,