ABSTRACT
For a soiree given by the minister of a republic, the reception produced an impression of extravagant display. The mansion had been recently redecorated from top to bottom. On the chimney-pieces, adorned with ormolu foliage of the richest sculpture, were placed huge mirrors in superb frames, and on the tables were girandoles of fretted ivory. The tables were oriental and of alabaster, and the stools gilt and covered with crimson velvet. The apartments received upon their bright delicate summer draperies, and curtains of fine gauze, the strange variegated illumination of innumerable coloured lights; and great, swift -darting bluish jets of electric light, would, all in a moment, cast pallor over these thousands of other lights. Out in the grounds – half park, half garden – an endless mosaic was wrought among the foliage by Chinese, Moorish, Persian, and Japanese lanterns, some made of perforated tin, cut into ogives like mosque doors, others of coloured paper resembling fruits.
