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At first sight, the exterior of the house at Auteuil gave no indications of splendor, nothing one would expect fronificent Count of Monte Cristo; but this si to the will of itsto be altered outside The splendor ithin Indeed, aled M Bertuccio had outdone hi, and in the rapidity hich it was executed It is told that the Duc d'Antin reht a whole avenue of trees that annoyed Louis XIV; in three days M Bertuccio planted an entirely bare court with poplars, large spreading sycamores to shade the different parts of the house, and in the foreground, instead of the usual paving-stones, half hidden by the grass, there extended a lawn but thatFor the rest, the orders had been issued by the count; he hi the spot where each tree was to be planted, and the shape and extent of the lahich was to take the place of the paving-stones Thus the house had beconizable, and Bertuccio himself declared that he scarcely knew it, encircled as it was by a framework of trees The overseer would not have objected, while he was about it, to have arden, but the count had positively forbidden it to be touched Bertucciothe ante-chambers, staircases, and mantle-pieces with flowers

What, above all, manifested the shrewdness of the steward, and the profound science of theout the ideas of the other, was that this house which appeared only the night before so sad and gloonated with that sickly smell one can alle day acquired the aspect of life, was scented with its ulated according to his wish When the count arrived, he had under his touch his books and ars, whose caresses he loved, welcohted him, cheered hi sleep, like the sleeping beauty in the wood, lived, sang, and bloo cherished, and in which, e are forced to leave theayly along the fine court-yard; so down the stairs, restored but the previous day, as if they had always inhabited the house; others filling the coach-houses, where the equipages, encased and numbered, appeared to have been installed for the last fifty years; and in the stables the horses replied with neighs to the grooms, who spoke to them with much more respect than many servants pay their masters