art objects of some
distinction--bronzes, marbles, hangings, pictures, clocks, rugs.

It seemed to him now that his comparatively commonplace house could be
made into something charming and for comparatively little money. The
dining-room for instance which, through two plain windows set in a hat
side wall back of the veranda, looked south over a stretch of grass and
several trees and bushes to a dividing fence where the Semple property
ended and a neighbor's began, could be made so much more attractive.
That fence--sharp-pointed, gray palings--could be torn away and a hedge
put in its place. The wall which divided the dining-room from the parlor
could be knocked through and a hanging of some pleasing character put in
its place. A bay-window could be built to replace the two present oblong
windows--a bay which would come down to the floor and open out on the
lawn via swiveled, diamond-shaped, lead-paned frames. All this shabby,
nondescript furniture, collected from heaven knows where--partly
inherited from the Semples and the Wiggins and partly bought--could be
thrown out or sold and something better and more harmonious introduced.
He knew a young man by the name of Ellsworth, an architect newly
graduated from a local school, with whom he had struck up an interesting
friendship--one of those inexplicable inclinations of temperament.
Wilton Ellsworth was an artist in spirit, quiet, meditative, refined.
From discussing the quality of a certain building on Chestnut Street
which was then being erected, and which Ellsworth pronounced atrocious,
they had fallen to discussing art in general, or the lack of it, in
America. And it occurred to him that Ellsworth was the man to carry out
his decorative views to a nicety. When he suggested the young man to
Lillian, she placidly agreed with him and also with his own ideas of how
the house could be revised.

So while they were gone on their honeymoon Ellsworth began the revision
on an estimated cost of three thousand dollars, including the furniture.
It was not completed for nearly three weeks after their return; but when
finished made a comparatively new house. The dining-room bay hung low
over the grass, as Frank wished, and the windows were diamond-paned
and leaded, swiveled on brass rods. The parlor and dining-room were
separated by sliding doors; but the intention was to hang in this
opening a silk hanging depicting a wedding scene in Normandy. Old
English oak was used in the di