my own advantage,
and his loss; for when he once sets his heart on a thing, he will have
it, and that too forthwith. He immediately let it be got ready, sent
furniture that he may spend the summer months here; and thus it has
come to pass that we are all met for his wedding in my old garden."

The house was large, and in a very lovely country. One side of it
lookt on a river and some woody hills beyond; shrubs and trees of
various kinds were scattered about the lawn; and immediately before
the windows lay a flower garden sweetening the air. The orange and
lemon trees were ranged in a large open hall, from which small doors
led to the store rooms, cellars, and pantries. On the other side a
meadow spread out its green floor, opening immediately into the park.
The two long wings of the house formed a spacious court; and broad
open galleries, borne by three rows of pillars standing one above the
other, ran round it, connecting all the rooms in the house, and giving
it a singular and interesting character: for figures were perpetually
moving along these arcades, some engaged in one employment, some in
another; new forms kept stepping forth between the pillars and out of
the various rooms, which anon vanisht and then reappeared above or
below, to be lost behind one of the doors: parties too would often
assemble there for tea or for some game; and thus from below the whole
had the look of a theatre, before which everybody was glad to stop
awhile, with a foreboding that something strange or pleasing was sure
to meet his eyes ere long.

The party of young people were just rising, when the bride came in her
full dress through the garden walking toward them. She was clad in
violet-coloured velvet: a sparkling necklace lay cradled on her
glittering neck; the costly lace just allowed her white swelling bosom
to glimmer through; and her wreath of myrtle and white roses gave her
brown hair a still more beautiful tint.

She greeted them all graciously, and the young men were astonisht at
her surpassing beauty. She had been gathering flowers in the garden,
and was going back into the house to see after the arrangements for
dinner.

The tables had been set out in the lower open gallery, and shone
dazzlingly with their white coverings and their load of sparkling
crystal: rich clusters of many-coloured flowers rose from the graceful
necks of alabaster vases; green garlands, starred with white blossoms,
twined round the columns: and i