Sacrament. Then unlocking a handsome door which had once been green
and gold, we entered the vast reception-room, almost bereft of
furniture, but possessing a pine floor of milky whiteness and a
remarkably fine stove of faience eight feet high. My father measured the
length of the apartment: it was forty feet, and could have seated a
hundred guests. The casements were filled with old lozenge-shaped glass
set in lead, and the fine old iron trellis-work on the outside of the
windows gave a wonderfully mediaeval look to the apartment. There was,
moreover, a magnificent bay window, which formed a little room of
itself, besides a second room much less, which, with carved wood
wainscot and ceiling, could have served as an oratory.

Margaret's delight was unbounded. The father smiled quietly, and we the
pioneers could scarcely refrain our pride and pleasure. But there was
more to be seen. Crossing the great hall once more, we entered a large
and beautiful room overlooking the main entrance. This had other
furniture besides its handsome porcelain stove and inlaid floor of dark
wood. There was not only a comfortable modern bed, but chairs, sofa and
table; a chest of drawers too, which was covered with innumerable
religious knickknacks--little sacred pictures in glass frames, miniature
saints, and artificial flowers in small china pots. Having dipped her
finger in a holy-water shell hanging on the wall, our guide drew back a
long chintz curtain which covered the end of the room, and showed us a
large and handsome chapel below. A fald-stool ran along the front of the
window which, with an additional lattice of gilt and carved wood,
separated the room from the church. This had evidently been in old times
the apartment of the lord and his lady, and here they had knelt and
listened to the holy office without mingling with their dependants
below. This room, if we had the good fortune to obtain lodgings in the
mansion, was to belong to the poetess, for it was full of inspiration
and old-world memories.

Then out again into the hall and up another flight of stone stairs,
through a second great lobby into a corridor, which communicated on
either side with two charming rooms, spotlessly clean and perfectly
empty, if I except the stoves; but still, if we chose, these two rooms
could be Margaret's and mine, and the corridor as well, with a beautiful
balcony which commanded an enchanting view of the rich Pusterthal up and
down, right and le