The vast reception-rooms,
worthy of the name of state-rooms, adjoin the small stone-built
apartments of the fortress which Paul's ancestors held against the
Tartars. This grimmer side of the building Paul reserved to the last for
reasons of his own, and Etta's manifest delight in the grandeur of the
more modern apartments fully rewarded him. Here, again, that side of her
character manifested itself which has already been shown. She was
dazzled and exhilarated by the splendor of it all, and the immediate
effect was a feeling of affection toward the man to whom this belonged;
who was in act, if not in word, laying it at her feet.
When they passed from the lofty rooms to the dimmer passages of the old
castle Etta's spirits visibly dropped, her interest slackened. He told
her of tragedies enacted in by-gone times--such ancient tales of violent
death and broken hearts as attach themselves to gray stone walls and
dungeon keeps. She only half listened, for her mind was busy with the
splendors they had left behind, with the purposes to which such
splendors could be turned. And the sum total of her thoughts was
gratified vanity.
Her bright presence awakened the gloom of ages within the dimly lit
historic rooms. Her laugh sounded strangely light and frivolous and
shallow in the silence of the ages which had brooded within these walls
since the days of Tamerlane.
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