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The Smiths in doing over the place had thought that the big drawing room, or ball room, was very shabby. I don't know whether it was or not. My memory of it is just that it was a handsome ball room, just what you would expect to find in a Victorian house of the period that that house was built. It was all right. It was good enough. It might need new curtains sometimes, but was not in bad shape.

Katie was very hospitable and very pleasant to people who stayed there. I was often asked to stay overnight when the Smiths were there. I would be up working late on things and would often be asked to spend the night at the Executive Mansion. She was a very nice hostess. She showed me the plans for fixing things up and making things over. I remember saying, “It looks all right to me.” But she said, “Oh, no, this isn't nice. This is awfully old-fashioned and gloomy.”

So they did over quite a lot. They did over the principal guest room and made it very chi-chi and just the last word in the way things were done.

The ball room was the case in point. That hurt many people and they felt it was terrible. It was done over in very light colors, while it was very heavy before. I think it had satin brocade on the walls of a lightish green. It was all kind of put on in panels. There was a lot of gold furniture. It was all dolled up. There was a lot of gold