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respite as he approaches home and
old age."
Had Eve been told that the man who uttered this nice sentiment, and
that too in accents as uncouth and provincial as the thought was
finished and lucid, actually presumed to think of her as his bosom
companion, it is not easy to say which would have predominated in her
mind, mirth or resentment. But Mr. Bragg was not in the habit of letting
his secrets escape him prematurely, and certainly this was one that none
but a wizard could have discovered without the aid of a direct oral or
written communication.
"Are you lately from Templeton?" repeated Eve a little surprised that
the gentleman did not see fit to answer the question, which was the
only one that, as it seemed to her, could have a common interest with
them both.
"I left home the day before yesterday," Aristabulus now deigned to
reply.
"It is so long since I saw our beautiful mountains and I was then so
young, that I feel a great impatience to revisit them, though the pleasure
must be deferred until spring."
"I conclude they are the handsomest mountains in the known world,
Miss Effingham!"
"That is much more than I shall venture to claim for them; but,
according to my imperfect recollection, and, what I esteem of far more
importance, according to the united testimony of Mr. John Effingham
and my father, I think they must be very beautiful."
Aristabulus looked up, as if he had a facetious thing to say, and he even
ventured on a smile, while he made his answer.
"I hope Mr. John Effingham has prepared you for a great change in the
house?"

"We know that it has been repaired and altered under his directions.
That was done at my father's request."
"We consider it denationalized, Miss Effingham, there being nothing
like it, west of Albany at least."
"I should be sorry to find that my cousin has subjected us to this
imputation," said Eve smiling--perhaps a little equivocally; "the
architecture of America being generally so simple and pure. Mr.
Effingham laughs at his own improvements, however, in which, he
says, he has only carried out the plans of the original artiste, who
worked very much in what was called the composite order.
"You allude to Mr. Hiram Doolittle, a gentleman I never saw; though I
hear he has left behind him many traces of his progress in the newer
states. Ex pede Herculem, as we say, in the classics, Miss Effingham I
believe it is the general sentiment that Mr. Doolittle's designs have been
improved on, though most people think that the Grecian or Roman
architecture, which is so much in use in America, would be more
republican. But every body knows that Mr. John Effingham is not
much of a republican."
Eve did not choose to discuss her kinsman's opinions with Mr.
Aristabulus Bragg, and she quietly remarked that she "did not know
that the imitations of the ancient architecture, of which there are so
many in the country, were owing to attachment to republicanism."
"To what else can it be owing, Miss Eve?"
"Sure enough," said Grace Van Cortlandt; "it is unsuited to the
materials, the climate, and the uses; and some very powerful motive,
like that mentioned by Mr. Bragg, could alone overcome these
obstacles."
Aristabulus started from his seat, and making sundry apologies,
declared his previous unconsciousness that Miss Van Cortlandt was
present; all of which was true enough, as he had been so much
occupied mentally, with her cousin, as not to have observed her, seated

as she was partly behind a screen. Grace received the excuses
favourably, and the conversation was resumed.
"I am sorry that my cousin should offend the taste of the country," said
Eve, "but as we are to live in the house, the punishment will fall
heaviest on the offenders."
"Do not mistake me, Miss Eve," returned Aristabulus, in a little alarm,
for he too well understood the influence and wealth of John Effingham,
not to wish to be on good terms with him; "do not mistake me, I admire
the house, and know it to be a perfect specimen of a pure architecture in
its way, but then public opinion is not yet quite up to it. I see all its
beauties, I would wish you to know, but then there are many, a majority
perhaps, who do not, and these persons think they ought to be consulted
about such matters."
"I believe Mr. John Effingham thinks less of his own work than you
seem to think of it yourself, sir, for I have frequently heard him laugh at
it, as a mere enlargement of the merits of the composite order. He calls
it a caprice, rather than a taste: nor