Near the Lagunas Author:Clemens Brentano Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE PASO QUINTEROS AND OTHER MATTERS. A House with a large green door, in the Calle Tucuman. The door was set in an archway, from which the ca... more »useway sloped down to the level of the paved street. When both leaves were thrown back, they opened a passage wide enough for a carriage to drive through. The archway extended under cover for about ten yards, leading into a large patio, paved with black and white tiles set diagonally across it. In the centre of this patio there stood a plant-stand of wood painted green, with green tubs filled with soil, in which grew a great variety of flowering plants—camellias, jessamines, carnations, roses, etc. Some of these were now in flower, some were onlybudding, but all were in perfect order and flourished exceedingly. From three sides of this patio doors led to various rooms. The wall on the fourth side, that to the right of the archway, was a blank— the house extended no further in that direction—and the pavement bordering it consisted of rough flag-stones, forming a road leading to a second archway, which opened into another patio; and beyond that there was yet another, larger than the other two put together, where the coach-house and stables were situate. The part of the house fronting the street was two stories high; the rest was only one story. There was no attempt at ornamental architecture to be seen about it; but most of the rooms were large, and doors and windows abounded. Such houses are frequently to be met with in Buenos Ayres. This was the residence of Don Tomas Eaeburn. Alec Gordon, who had been for months in the Banda Oriental, busy with his friend and partner, Harry Baeburn, in the selection and purchase of an estancia, returned from Monte Video one day in February, 1858, and before noon strolled leisurely u...« less