I wish I could adequately paint the scene the following morning, when the van conveying all the purchases, with the exception of the blinds and the chairs, which had still to be cushioned, drew up at the door of Ye Dene. First of all came the carpet, which was promptly laid down and tacked into position.
“It clashes with everything,” said Maudie, quite tragically.
“I don’t think it does. It goes quite well with that blue in the wall-paper. I carried the color in my eye,” said Julia. “And, after all, it won’t show much. There’s a lot to go on it.”
And true enough, compared with the other things, the carpet was absolutely inoffensive.
“You would like the over-mantel put up, lady?” said the workman who laid the carpet.
“Yes, I think so.”
“You wouldn’t like to have it enameled first?”
“No, I think we’ll keep it as it is,” Julia replied. “Don’t you think so, Maudie?”
“Oh yes,” said Maudie, in a voice of complete despair, “keep it as it is.”
Honestly, I do not know how to describe this room, the room that had started so well. With a few articles of real Louis Quinze furniture to give it a tone, and the rest decently shrouded in the exquisite chintz which the girls had chosen, the room might have been one whose equal was not to be found in the length and breadth of the Park. As it was, it ended by having the air of a bazaar stall, put together by somebody who did not properly understand the business.