When the train stopped at a station in that country, the police dragged Narayana off the train and put him in a small eight-foot-by-eight-foot room with a cold stone floor and a hole in the corner that served as a toilet.

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Inside, a spiral staircase swoops from a playfully designed stone floor in the lobby to the bar level of the hotel.

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I'm standing at a first-floor window, an arched stone one like you'd find in a church, my face close up to the diamond-shaped leaded panes, keeping lookout.

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In the cottage downstairs there was only one room, with a kitchen at one end and a sitting room at the other, a flagged floor and a wood fire smoldering in a wide stone hearth, one wall stripped back to the naked stone.

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Owner Tony Pak has jazzed up his sprawling, 8, 000-square-foot second floor space with a bubbling stone fountain, koi pond, lounge pit, Asian statuary, Internet kiosks, animal sculptures and plastic floral wreaths.

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The stone home has vaulted ceilings, a floor-to-ceiling fireplace, built-in bookcases and an outdoor pool with waterfall.

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The fragrances are sold from two boutiques: one in Paris, a stone's throw from Rosenthal's jewelry shop, a second on the lower floor of Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan.

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He stared into the long, beautifully furnished room with a shoulder-high stone fireplace at its far end, book-filled shelves, Chinese carpets on a gleaming hardwood floor.

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An open hatch in the polished stone floor leads down to the water beneath and a small natural pool.

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In the living room, with floor-to-ceiling glass doors and large windows that overlook the mountains, a stone fireplace is topped by a white mantle and a round mirror.

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