The antique red velvet worked with gold, which draped the walls, glowed like a furnace fire.

About the doors and windows there were hangings of old lace broidered with flowers in coloured silk whose hues had the very intensity of life.

But the sight of sights beneath the sumptuous panelled ceiling adorned with golden roses, the unique spectacle of a richness not to be equalled, was the collection of masterpieces such as no museum could excel.

There were works of Raffaelle and Titian, Rembrandt and Rubens, Velasquez and Ribera, famous works which in this unexpected illumination suddenly showed forth, triumphant with youth regained, as if awakened to the immortal life of genius.

And, as their Majesties would not arrive before midnight, the ball had just been opened, and flights of soft-hued gowns were whirling in a waltz past all the pompous throng, the glittering jewels and decorations, the gold-broidered uniforms and the pearl-broidered robes, whilst silk and satin and velvet spread and overflowed upon every side.
"It is prodigious, really!" declared Prada with his excited air; "let us go this way and place ourselves in a window recess again.