ained in
imitation of the gray lichens which infest trees. Large sheets of clear,
beveled glass were used, some oval, some oblong, some square, and some
circular, following a given theory of eye movement. The fixtures for
the gas-jets were modeled after the early Roman flame-brackets, and the
office safe was made an ornament, raised on a marble platform at the
back of the office and lacquered a silver-gray, with Cowperwood & Co.
lettered on it in gold. One had a sense of reserve and taste pervading
the place, and yet it was also inestimably prosperous, solid and
assuring. Cowperwood, when he viewed it at its completion, complimented
Ellsworth cheerily. "I like this. It is really beautiful. It will be
a pleasure to work here. If those houses are going to be anything like
this, they will be perfect."

"Wait till you see them. I think you will be pleased, Mr. Cowperwood. I
am taking especial pains with yours because it is smaller. It is
really easier to treat your father's. But yours--" He went off into a
description of the entrance-hall, reception-room and parlor, which he
was arranging and decorating in such a way as to give an effect of size
and dignity not really conformable to the actual space.

And when the houses were finished, they were effective and
arresting--quite different from the conventional residences of the
street. They were separated by a space of twenty feet, laid out as
greensward. The architect had borrowed somewhat from the Tudor
school, yet not so elaborated as later became the style in many of the
residences in Philadelphia and elsewhere. The most striking features
were rather deep-recessed doorways under wide, low, slightly floriated
arches, and three projecting windows of rich form, one on the second
floor of Frank's house, two on the facade of his father's. There were
six gables showing on the front of the two houses, two on Frank's and
four on his father's. In the front of each house on the ground floor
was a recessed window unconnected with the recessed doorways, formed
by setting the inner external wall back from the outer face of the
building. This window looked out through an arched opening to the
street, and was protected by a dwarf parapet or balustrade. It was
possible to set potted vines and flowers there, which was later done,
giving a pleasant sense of greenery from the street, and to place a few
chairs there, which were reached via heavily barred French casements.

On the ground fl