Page:Maud Howe - Atlanta in the South.djvu/14

 their owner, wrought in fine ironwork above the central windows, where the façade rises to a high peak. The lower floors are now occupied by shops of a more or less unsavory aspect, for fashion, which once was at its height in Jackson Square, has flown to a newer and less attractive part of the city. Among the tenants of the fine old Pontalba buildings there are few to-day who claim any connection with polite society. Rondelet might have been classed with the exceptionals in this respect, as he should be in many others. He certainly was exceptional in his appearance, and no less so in his tastes, if we may judge by the glimpse we catch of him sitting in his small study under the leads, staring dreamily out into the square below. There were very few articles of furniture in the room, and the floor lacked a carpet. A third of the space, that part where the sun lay longest, was devoted to a miniature garden, where the flowers bore all the marks of a careful and loving hand. Rare and splendid orchids hung from the wall, and a superb oriental flower, looking like a vast vegetable butterfly, bloomed serenely forth from the neck of a broken wine-bottle. A row of Japanese dwarf-oaks made a sombre background for a vivid staff of Mexican cactus-flowers. In the midst of all this tropical bloom stood a large aviary, where a dozen birds twittered and trilled and dipped