had seen abroad now appealed to him as
examples of what a stately residence should be. He was really seeking
something which should not only reflect his private tastes as to a
home, but should have the more enduring qualities of a palace or even a
museum, which might stand as a monument to his memory. After much
searching Cowperwood had found an architect in New York who suited him
entirely--one Raymond Pyne, rake, raconteur, man-about-town--who was
still first and foremost an artist, with an eye for the exceptional and
the perfect. These two spent days and days together meditating on the
details of this home museum. An immense gallery was to occupy the west
wing of the house and be devoted to pictures; a second gallery should
occupy the south wing and be given over to sculpture and large whorls
of art; and these two wings were to swing as an L around the house
proper, the latter standing in the angle between them. The whole
structure was to be of a rich brownstone, heavily carved. For its
interior decoration the richest woods, silks, tapestries, glass, and
marbles were canvassed. The main rooms were to surround a great
central court with a colonnade of pink-veined alabaster, and in the
center there would be an electrically lighted fountain of alabaster and
silver. Occupying the east wall a series of hanging baskets of
orchids, or of other fresh flowers, were to give a splendid glow of
color, a morning-sun effect, to this richly artificial realm. One
chamber--a lounge on the second floor--was to be entirely lined with
thin-cut transparent marble of a peach-blow hue, the lighting coming
only through these walls and from without. Here in a perpetual
atmosphere of sunrise were to be racks for exotic birds, a trellis of
vines, stone benches, a central pool of glistening water, and an echo
of music. Pyne assured him that after his death this room would make
an excellent chamber in which to exhibit porcelains, jades, ivories,
and other small objects of value.

Cowperwood was now actually transferring his possessions to New York,
and had persuaded Aileen to accompany him. Fine compound of tact and
chicane that he was, he had the effrontery to assure her that they
could here create a happier social life. His present plan was to
pretend a marital contentment which had no basis solely in order to
make this transition period as undisturbed as possible. Subsequently he
might get a divorce, or he might make an arrangement