She had used a Ridgway platter with a view of the Hudson River on
it, as a dinner plate for her hound, for we found it wrapped up,
with "Nipper's platter" scrawled on the paper.
By and large, it wasn't an easy task to renovate a brick barracks
finished in 1735, and occupied for ninety-nine years by a lady of
Sophronisba's parts; though I sha'n't tell how we had to tackle it
room by room, nor of the sweating hours spent in, so to speak,
separating the sheep things from the goat things. I can't help
stopping for a minute, though, to gloat over the front drawing-room
that presently emerged, with a cleaned carpet that proved to be a
marvel of hand-woven French art, rosewood sofas and chairs
upholstered in royal blue and rubbed to satiny-browny blackness, two
gloriously inlaid tables, and a Venetian mirror between two windows.
We gave the place of honor on the white marble mantel to a porcelain
painting Alicia found in a work-box--the picture of a woman in gray
brocade sprigged with pink-and-blue posies, a lace fichu about her
slim shoulders, and a cap with a rose in it covering her parted
brown hair. The little boy leaning against her knees had darker blue
eyes, and fairer hair pushed back from a bold and manly forehead.
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