Two years ago I purchased a small property overlooking the ponds of Ville d'Avray,on the road to Versailles.It consists of twenty acres of meadow land,the skirts of a wood,and a fine fruit garden.Below the meadows the land has been excavated so as to make a lakelet of about three acres in extent,with a charming little island in the middle.The small valley is shut in by two graceful,thickly-wooded slopes,where rise delicious springs that water my park by means of channels cleverly disposed by my architect.Finally,they fall into the royal ponds,glimpses of which can be seen here and there,gleaming in the distance.My little park has been admirably laid out by the architect,who has surrounded it by hedges,walls,or ha-has,according to the lie of the land,so that no possible point of view may be lost.
A chalet has been built for me half-way up the hillside,with a charming exposure,having the woods of the Ronce on either side,and in front a grassy slope running down to the lake.Externally the chalet is an exact copy of those which are so much admired by travelers on the road from Sion to Brieg,and which fascinated me when I was returning from Italy.The internal decorations will bear comparison with those of the most celebrated buildings of the kind.
A hundred paces from this rustic dwelling stands a charming and ornamental house,communicating with it by a subterranean passage.
This contains the kitchen,and other servants'rooms,stables,and coach-houses.Of all this series of brick buildings,the facade alone is seen,graceful in its simplicity,against a background of shrubbery.Another building serves to lodge the gardeners and masks the entrance to the orchards and kitchen-gardens.
The entrance gate to the property is so hidden in the wall dividing the park from the wood as almost to defy detection.The plantations,already well grown,will,in two or three years,completely hide the buildings,so that,except in winter,when the trees are bare,no trace of habitation will appear to the outside world,save only the smoke visible from the neighboring hills.
The surroundings of my chalet have been modeled on what is called the King's Garden at Versailles,but it has an outlook on my lakelet and island.The hills on every side display their abundant foliage--those splendid trees for which your new civil list has so well cared.My gardeners have orders to cultivate new sweet-scented flowers to any extent,and no others,so that our home will be a fragrant emerald.
The chalet,adorned with a wild vine which covers the roof,is literally embedded in climbing plants of all kinds--hops,clematis,jasmine,azalea,copaea.It will be a sharp eye which can descry our windows!
The chalet,my dear,is a good,solid house,with its heating system and all the conveniences of modern architecture,which can raise a palace in the compass of a hundred square feet.It contains a suite of rooms for Gaston and another for me.The ground-floor is occupied by an ante-room,a parlor,and a dining room.Above our floor again are three rooms destined for the nurseries.I have five first-rate horses,a small light coupe,and a two-horse cabriolet.We are only forty-minutes'drive from Paris;so that,when the spirit moves us to hear an opera or see a new play,we can start after dinner and return the same night to our bower.The road is a good one,and passes under the shade of our green dividing wall.
My servants--cook,coachman,groom,and gardeners,in addition to my maid--are all very respectable people,whom I have spent the last six months in picking up,and they will be superintended by my old Philippe.Although confident of their loyalty and good faith,I have not neglected to cultivate self-interest;their wages are small,but will receive an annual addition in the shape of a New Year's Day present.They are all aware that the slightest fault,or a mere suspicion of gossiping,might lose them a capital place.Lovers are never troublesome to their servants;they are indulgent by disposition,and therefore I feel that I can reckon on my household.
All that is choice,pretty,or decorative in my house in the Rue du Bac has been transported to the chalet.The Rembrandt hangs on the staircase,as though it were a mere daub;the Hobbema faces the Rubens in /his/study;the Titian,which my sister-in-law Mary sent me from Madrid,adorns the boudoir.The beautiful furniture picked up by Felipe looks very well in the parlor,which the architect has decorated most tastefully.Everything at the chalet is charmingly simple,with the simplicity which can't be got under a hundred thousand francs.Our ground-floor rests on cellars,which are built of millstone and embedded in concrete;it is almost completely buried in flowers and shrubs,and is deliciously cool without a vestige of damp.
To complete the picture,a fleet of white swans sail over my lake!