It is not a ruin, Will, such as you have been
permitted to visit, but a magnificent building with all of the modern
improvements. The only wettings that the inmates sustain are of a
daily character and due entirely to voluntary association with
porcelain bath-tubs and nickle-plated showers, and they never get
anything wet but their skins. As for the furnishings, I can assure
you that the entire Blithers fortune could not replace them if they
were to be destroyed by fire or pillage. They are priceless and they
are unique. I have read that the hangings in the bed-chamber of the
late Princess Yetive are the most wonderful in the whole world. The
throne chair in the great audience chamber is of solid gold and
weighs nearly three thousand pounds. It is studded with diamonds,
rubies--"
"Great Scott, Lou, where did you learn all this?" he gasped, his eyes
bulging.
"--emeralds and other precious stones. There is one huge carpet in
the royal drawing-room that the Czar of Russia is said to have
offered one hundred thousand pounds for and the offer was scorned.
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