but other times, he would stop and before he had even realized, he had been
looking at it for ages. He couldn’t explain to anyone what it was about the old mansion
that drew him again and again. It was really just a burned up shell of a house. There had
been a fire ages ago, the windows had been boarded up and it had been left to rot as it
stood. The shutters were falling off and the roof was sagging, vines wound their way up
the grand grecian columns. She was old and weathered and tarnished with time, but she
still beautiful in Astor’s eyes.