“The garden was famous for its abandonment… and the house — for its roof. It stood in the center of the courtyard, close to the garden, with the branches of the lime trees embracing him, he was low and squat, but it seemed like a long-lasting structure, so thoroughly it looked from under its unusually tall and thick thatched roof, which was blackened and hardened with age. To me, its front facade always seemed alive: like an old face looking out from under a huge cap, with the hollows of eyes — its windows with glass shining with the rain droplets in the sunlight. And on each side of these eyes were the porches — two big old porches with columns. When you enter the house the first you can capture is the smell of apples, and then other smells: old mahogany furniture, dried lime color… All the rooms — the servants” room, the hall, and the dining-room — are cool and gloomy, because the house is surrounded with the garden, and the upper part of the windows is made of colored glass: blue and purple. Everything is quiet and clean, although it seems that the chairs, tables with inlays and mirrors in narrow and twisted gold frames have been in their places for ages’.