Ladies, too, were present, in silk or satin billowing in many a fold, their powdered hair rolled high in the style made fashionable by Madame Jeanne Poisson de Pompadour.

From an inner room came the music of a band softly playing French songs or airs from the Florentine opera.

The air was charged with odors of perfume.
It _was_ intoxicating, and yet it was pleasant.

No, "pleasant" was not the word, it was alluring, it played upon the senses, it threw a glow over the rooms and the people, and the youth saw everything through a tawny mist that heightened and deepened the colors.

He was glad that he had come.