"If we didn't—I'd emigrate! We don't have such splendid things as that old pile of stones,"—looking back at the dome,—"but our farmhouses are a long sight ahead of this country."
"I guess, Rupert," Dolly remarked now, "the men that built the dome did not build the farmhouses."
"Who built the dome, as you call it, then? But I don't see any dome; there's only a nest of towers."
"The nobles built the great cathedrals."
"And if you went through one of their houses," said Lawrence, "you would not think they neglected number one. You never saw anything like an old German schloss in America."
"Then the nobles had all the money?"
"Pretty much so. Except the rich merchants in some of the cities; and they built grand churches and halls and the like, and made themselves happy with magnificence at home in other ways; not architecture."
"I am glad I don't belong here," said Rupert. "But don't the people know any better?"
"Than what?"
"Than to let the grand folks have it all their own way?"