armoire; while a young painter from
Sacramento had simply retired into his adjoining bath-room, leaving the
glories of his bedroom untarnished. Suddenly he paused.
He had turned into a smaller passage in order to make a shorter cut
through one of the deserted suites of apartments that should bring him
to that part of the building where he designed to make his projected
improvement, when his feet were arrested on the threshold of a
sitting-room. Although it contained the same decoration and furniture
as the other rooms, it looked totally different! It was tasteful,
luxurious, comfortable, and habitable. The furniture seemed to have
fallen into harmonious position; even the staring decorations of the
walls and ceiling were toned down by sprays of laurel and red-stained
manzanito boughs with their berries, apparently fresh plucked from the
near canyon. But he was more unexpectedly impressed to see that the room
was at that moment occupied by a tall, handsome girl, who had paused
to take breath, with her hand still on the heavy centre-table she was
moving.
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