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@@@@@The library connected with a study where paintings - not stodgy oil portraits but bright abstract things, even a couple of op-art eye-poppers - hung on the walls 258 Light showered down on us like white rain as we walked the main hall (Wireman walked; I limped), and I realized that, for all of the mansion's grandeur, this part of it was no more than a glorified dogtrot - the kind that separates sections of older and much humbler Florida dwellingsThat style, almost always constructed of wood (sometimes scrapwood) rather than stone, even has a name: Florida Cracker This dogtrot, filled with light courtesy of its long glass ceiling, was lined with plantersAt its far end, Wireman hung a rightI followed him into an enormous cool parlorA row of windows gave on a side courtyard filled with flowers - my daughters could have named half of them, Pam all of them, but I could only name the asters, dayflowers, elderberry, and foxgloveOh, and the rhododendronThere was plenty of thatBeyond the tangle, on a blue-tiled walk that presumably connected with the main courtyard, stalked a sharp-eyed heronIt looked both thoughtful and grim, but I never saw a one on the ground that didn't look like a Puritan elder considering which witch to burn next 259 In the center of the room was the woman Ilse and I had seen on the day we tried exploring Duma Key RoadThen she'd been in a wheelchair, her feet clad in blue Hi-TopsToday she was standing with her hands planted on the grips of a walker, and her feet - large and very pale - were bareShe was dressed in a high-waisted pair of beige slacks and a dark brown silk blouse with amusingly wide shoulders and full sleevesIt was an outfit that made me think of Katharine Hepburn in those old movies they sometimes show on Turner Classic Movies: Adam's Rib, or Woman of the YearOnly I couldn't remember Katharine Hepburn looking this old, even when she was old The room was dominated by a long, low table of the sort my father had had in the cellar for his electric trains, only this one was covered in some light wood - it looked like bamboo - rather than fake grassIt was crowded with model buildings and china figurines: men, women, children, barnyard animals, zoo animals, creatures of mythical renownSpeaking of mythical creatures, I saw a couple of fellows in blackface that wouldn't have passed muster with the N-double-A-C-P 260 Elizabeth Eastlake looked at Wireman with an expression of sweet delight I would have enjoyed drawingalthough I'm not sure anyone would have taken it seriouslyI'm not sure we ever believe the simplest emotions in our art, although we see them all around us, every day"I woke up early and I've been having such a wonderful time with my chinas!" She had a deep southern-girl accent that turned chinas into CHA-nahs"Look, the family's at home!" At one end of the table was a model man