Carolyn Wells

Faulkner's Folly Carolyn Wells

Beatrice Faulkner paused a moment, on her way down the great staircase, to gaze curiouslyat the footman in the lower hall. A perfectly designed and nobly proportioned staircase is perhaps the finest indoorbackground for a beautiful woman, but though Mrs. Faulkner had often taken advantage ofthis knowledge, there was no such thought in her mind just now. She descended the fewremaining steps, her eyes still fixed on the astonishing sight of a footman's back, when heshould have been standing at attention. He might not have heard her soft footfall, but hesurely had no business to be peering in at a door very slightly ajar. Faulkner's Folly was the realised dream of the architect who had been its original owner. Itwas a perfect example of the type known in England as Georgian and in our own country asColonial, a style inspired by the Italian disciples of Palladio, and as developed by Inigo Jonesand Christopher Wren, it had seemed to James Faulkner to possess the joint qualities ofcomfort and dignity that made it ideal for a home. The house was enormous, the roomsperfectly proportioned, and the staircase had been the architect's joy and delight. It showedthe wooden wainscoting, which was handed down from the Jacobeans; broad, deep stepswith low risers, large, square landings, newels with mitred tops and rather plain balusters. But the carved wood necessary to carry out the plans, the great problems of lighting, thenecessity for columned galleries and long, arched and recessed windows, together with thestupendous outlay for appropriate grounds and gardens, overtaxed the available funds andFaulkner's Folly, in little more than two years after its completion, was sold for less than itsintrinsic value.