Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 edition. Excerpt: ...wall-papers). There are great armoires here and there on bare and beeswaxed floors. Everything is spotless (with Suzanne's mother cleanliness and godliness walk hand in hand). But the walls are noisy as a patchwork quilt. Here first-communion cards, blossoms in wax and tinsel, plaster saints and china benitiers, all vie upon a paper crude and worried. Nor are these all, for every room has its Ave Maria in outrageous oleograph of golds and pinks and mineral greens, with every colour glazed. You will be sure that this St. Joseph must be the worst of all, till you have seen SS. Antoine and Etienne who grace the room beyond. Further, there are two little pictures in fascinating time-toned frames. The first might be a Ribera outlined in faded ink (you met him in Italy, you remember, as Lo Spagnoletto), and below an early woodcut of St. Anne. These two have found refuge in Suzanne's mother's bedroom behind the door. Indeed, the whole house tickles your fancy and conceit. What a place it might become were you the owner! True, Suzanne's mother has prerogative; and yet, did not that Spaniard come by a violent death and nobody the wiser? What a place it might be made when, all that paint and paper scraped away, those massive stones about each open hearth disclosed, you placed your cherished goods and chattels (now warehoused in remote Kensington) just how they should be set in each right nook and corner. But the top story is the best of all--one vast wood-panelled chamber--used now as lumber-room. Here in the autumn are the apples and green walnuts stored. Their pungent scent still lingers, blended with odour of leather, wood and herbs; for there is a motley array of old stamped leather boxes, with endless pots and pans in brass and faience, mostly...
