removed, and instead, there were placed on the desk two Books of Common Prayer,
richly bound and embossed with silver. With this enviable sleeping apartment,
which was so far removed from every sound, save that of the wind sighing among
the oaks of the park, that Morpheus might have coveted it for his own proper
repose, corresponded two wardrobes, or dressing-rooms as they are now termed,
suitably furnished, and in a style of the same magnificence which we have
already described. It ought to be added, that a part of the building in the
adjoining wing was occupied by the kitchen and its offices, and served to
accommodate the personal attendants of the great and wealthy nobleman, for whose
use these magnificent preparations had been made.
    The divinity for whose sake this temple had been decorated, was well worthy
the cost and pains which had been bestowed. She was seated in the
withdrawing-room which we have described, surveying with the pleased eye of
natural and innocent vanity, the splendour which had been so suddenly created,
as it were, in her honour. For, as her own residence at Cumnor Place formed the
cause of the mystery observed in all the preparations for opening these
apartments, it was sedulously arranged, that, until she took possession of them,
she should have no means of knowing what was going forward in that part of the
ancient building, or of exposing herself to be seen by the workmen engaged in
the decorations. She had been, therefore, introduced on that evening to a part
of the mansion which she had never yet seen, so different from all the rest,
that it appeared, in comparison, like an enchanted palace. And when she first
examined and occupied these splendid rooms, it was with the wild and
unrestrained joy of a rustic beauty, who finds herself suddenly invested with a
splendour which her most extravagant wishes had never imagined, and at the same
time with the keen feeling of an affectionate heart, which knows that all the
enchantment that surrounds her is the work of the great magician Love.
    The Countess Amy, therefore, - for to that rank she was exalted by her
private but solemn union with England's proudest Earl, - had for a time flitted
hastily from room to room, admiring each new proof of her lover and her
bridegroom's taste, and feeling that admiration enhanced, as she recollected
that all she gazed upon was one continued proof of his ardent and devoted
affection. - »How beautiful are these hangings! - How natural these paintings,
which seem to contend with life! - How richly wrought is