CHAPTER XII.
_HOME A LA POMPADOUR_.
Well, Lillie came back at last; and John conducted her over the transformed Seymour mansion, where literally old things had passed away, and all things become new.
There was not a relic of the past.

The house was furbished and resplendent--it was gilded--it was frescoed--it was _a la_ Pompadour, and _a la_ Louis Quinze and Louis Quatorze, and _a la_ every thing Frenchy and pretty, and gay and glistening.

For, though the parlors at first were the only apartments contemplated in this _renaissance_, yet it came to pass that the parlors, when all tricked out, cast such invidious reflections on the chambers that the chambers felt themselves old and rubbishy, and prayed and stretched out hands of imploration to have something done for _them_! So the spare chamber was first included in the glorification programme; but, when the spare chamber was once made into a Pompadour pavilion, it so flouted and despised the other old-fashioned Yankee chambers, that they were ready to die with envy; and, in short, there was no way to produce a sense of artistic unity, peace, and quietness, but to do the whole thing over, which was done triumphantly.
The French Emperor, Louis Napoleon, who was a shrewd sort of a man in his day and way, used to talk a great deal about the "logic of events;" which language, being interpreted, my dear gentlemen, means a good deal in domestic life.

It means, for instance, that when you drive the first nail, or tear down the first board, in the way of alteration of an old house, you will have to make over every room and corner in it, and pay as much again for it as if you built a new one.
John was able to sympathize with Lillie in her childish delight in the new house, because he _loved_ her, and was able to put himself and his own wishes out of the question for her sake; but, when all the bills connected with this change came in, he had emotions with which Lillie could not sympathize: first, because she knew nothing about figures, and was resolved never to know any thing; and, like all people who know nothing about them, she cared nothing;--and, second, because she did _not_ love John.
Now, the truth is, Lillie would have been quite astonished to have been told this.

She, and many other women, suppose that they love their husbands, when, unfortunately, they have not the beginning of an idea what love is.