Inside the house, however, Carolina had carried out the original plan, with only the necessary additions of bathrooms to each suite and plenty of closets, which the old Guildford had never possessed. This did not interfere with the installation of the great carved wardrobes, without which no Southern house could look natural to a Southerner.
These she designed from old cuts and had made to order, preferring new ones exactly like those which had been in the family for generations to purchasing old pieces which rightly belonged to other histories than hers. Guildford was frankly a restoration, so she boldly reproduced the furniture as well as the house.
With the papering she had some difficulty. No one could remember the exact patterns, and there was more friction over diverse recollections of wallpaper than over any other point. But Carolina waived all advice finally, deciding that decorations were but temporary at best, and resting upon the absolute word of Judge Fanshaw Lee, of Charleston, that Guildford had been utterly redecorated in 1859.
This decision gave Carolina a free hand, and she exercised her taste to such good purpose that the new Guildford, in its decorations, maintained an air of age, yet so skilfully was it done that it was also essentially modern. Only patterns were used which had borne the test of time, as one who discarded in cut glass the showier designs for the dignified simpler patterns, considering them more restful to live with than those more ornate and modern.
In her cut glass Carolina had been more fortunate, owing to the possession of a few precious pieces, preserved among the Lees, from which to design. The largest was a huge épergne, with glittering pendants, which rose almost to the chandelier, and was designed for pyramids of fruit. It was so delightfully old-fashioned that Carolina viewed it with clasped hands.
Although electric light glowed unobtrusively from submerged globes in walls and ceilings, Carolina used sconces for the wax tapers of her ancestors, and the delicate light was so deftly shaded and manipulated that it seemed only to aid and abet the candles.
The central staircase of the house rose from the midst of a square hall, turned on a broad landing, and wound, in two wings, back upon itself to reach the second floor. On this landing was an enormous window, cushioned and comfortable, from which the view of the fallow fields and winding river was quite as attractive as the front view, which gave upon the distant ocean.
The main hall pierced the roof, in the centre of which was a gorgeous skylight of stained glass. Here, too, Carolina had departed from the lines of ancient Guildford, for no less a hand than that of John La Farge designed that graceful group, whose colours drenched the marble floor beneath with all the colours of the rainbow.
A high carved balustrade ran around this space on the second floor, from behind which, in years gone by, the children and black mammies had viewed the arrival of distinguished guests, whose visits had helped to make Guildford famous.
From this square space, transverse halls ran each way, with suites of rooms on both sides, ending in doors which led to the upper porch, as large and commodious and more beautiful than the lower, because the view was finer.