A gentleman of fortune had just completed and furnished an elegant establishment, when unexpected circumstances compelled him to leave his country to be absent several years.
I do not think Ernest would have fitted up our bridal home in so showy and magnificent a style; but his love for the beautiful and graceful was gratified, and he was pleased with my enthusiastic admiration and delight.
I sometimes imagined myself in an enchanted palace, when wandering through the splendid suite of apartments adorned with such oriental luxury.

The gentleman whose taste had presided over the building of the mansion, had travelled all over Europe, and passed several years in the East.

He had brought home with him the richest and rarest models of Eastern architecture, and fashioned his own mansion after them.

Ernest had not purchased it, for the owner was not willing to sell; he was anxious, however, to secure occupants who would appreciate its elegance, and guard it from injury.
Ah! little did I think when eating my bread and milk from the china bowl bordered by flowers, when a silver spoon seemed something grand and massy in the midst of general poverty, that I should ever be the mistress of such a magnificent mansion.

I had thought Grandison Place luxuriously elegant; but what was it compared to this?
How shall I begin to describe it?
or shall I describe it at all?
I always like myself to know how to localize a friend, to know their surroundings and realities, and all that fills up the picture of their life.