This white shrine of maidenhood! He had felt its influence
before he was able to understand, and the reverential awe had grown with
his returning strength. How dainty it was, for all its rough board floor
and rude log walls! Even those were as white as the driven snow. The bed
was like the warm, soft breast of a snow-white swan, and its drawn
curtains like folded wings. There were spotless muslin curtains over the
windows, and the little toilet table also was draped in white and strewn
with bits of carved ivory. The whole room showed the same mingling of
luxury and simplicity that was to be seen in the great room below.
These fine ivory carvings, the rare prints and a painting or two on the
rude walls, the alabaster vase on the rude stand,--filled with fresh,
late-blooming flowers,--the costly white fur rug on the floor, the
delicate work basket with its coquettish bows of riband, contrasted
oddly with the other simple things which had evidently been made in the
wilderness by unskilled hands. Yet even those were tasteful and all
painted white, so that the whole was purity, beauty, and exquisiteness.
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