“A good idea; we will not omit that,” said the count. “The palace will be four immense buildings, standing like a Greek cross, with a vast glass-covered court in the centre, about two hundred feet square. Each quadrangle also, will have a glass-roofed court, but not so large. The great central court must be a grand hall for great celebrations. Now what shall we do with the others? The corners of the four buildings lap some ten feet, you understand, and communicate on every story by passages or corridors.” “One of these courts,” said Susie, “I would have for a winter conservatory.” “That is my thought exactly,” said the count, “and all things are working together admirably. I have spoken for a palm-tree, fifty feet high, and many years old, which is an elephant drawn in a lottery to its owner, and which I can have for the tenth part of what it will be worth for the centre of this court. It once belonged to Gouverneur Morris, of Pennsylvania, I am told.” “Why, I know the history of that tree,” said the doctor. “Is that so? Can that be obtained? Well, how all things do conspire to success when you operate on a grand scale! Now, in your great subterranean-ventilating galleries, you are to place hot-air furnaces for warming the palace. One of these galleries can run directly under the court, and hot-water pipes, from a furnace located directly underneath, can warm your conservatory, Susie.” “The swimming-baths are the most difficult to warm, I think. The silk works we will place nearer than we intended, and use the exhausted steam of the engines for the purpose. Baths there must be in the palace as well; but these swimming-baths I want to make a great feature. Nothing is so refreshing after labor as a swim. It makes the body supple and elastic. I don’t think water, as a moral agent, can be over-estimated. Make a community thoroughly clean outside, and the inside will soon set itself in harmony. People will never be moral so long as baths are a luxury.” “Oh!” exclaimed Susie. “I can’t believe I shall live to see all this; or if I ever do see it really accomplished, I shall die of pure joy. Think of it! Hundreds of poor families having all these luxuries, these splendid conditions for culture and refinement, and all for no more money than they now pay for their miserable tenements! _Can_ it be done?” “It certainly can,” replied the count; “and hereafter it will be by labor organizations themselves.” As they drove down over the old wooden bridge, the doctor remarked the necessity of having a new one.