artists. We were constantly compelled to come to a compromise, each
yielding some point; not without a secret misgiving on my part that the
new house would have many an eyesore about it for me. But then it was
Julia's money that was doing it, and after all she was more anxious to
please me than I deserved.

That afternoon Pellet and I, like two assistants in a furnishing-house,
unrolled carpets and stretched them along the floors before the critical
gaze of my mother and Julia. We unpacked chairs and tables, scanning
anxiously for damages on the polished wood, and setting them one after
another in a row against the walls. I went about as in some dream. The
house commanded a splendid view of the whole group of the Channel
Islands, and the rocky islets innumerable strewed about the sea. The
afternoon sun was shining full upon Sark, and whenever I looked through
the window I could see the cliffs of the Havre Gosselin, purple in the
distance, with a silver thread of foam at their foot. No wonder that my
thoughts wandered, and the words my mother and Julia were speaking went
in at one ear and out at the other. Certainly I was dreaming; but which
part was the dream?

"I don't believe he cares a straw about the carpets!" exclaimed Julia,
in a disappointed tone.

"I do indeed, dear Julia," I said, bringing myself back to the carpets.
Here I had been obliged to give in to Julia's taste. She had set her
mind upon having flowers in her drawing-room carpet, and there they
were, large garlands of bright-colored blossoms, very gay, and, as I
ventured to remark to myself, very gaudy.

"You like it better than you did in the pattern?" she asked, anxiously.