Lofty green plants decorated this hall, and in the spot selected Pierre was virtually hidden.

"Don't stir, my dear Abbe," said Massot, "I will try to ferret out the Princess for you.

And you shall know if Baroness Duvillard has already arrived." What surprised Pierre was that every window-shutter of the mansion was closed, every chink stopped up so that daylight might not enter, and that every room flared with electric lamps, an illumination of supernatural intensity.

The heat was already very great, the atmosphere heavy with a violent perfume of flowers and _odore di femina_.

And to Pierre, who felt both blinded and stifled, it seemed as if he were entering one of those luxurious, unearthly Dens of the Flesh such as the pleasure-world of Paris conjures from dreamland.