CHAPTER VII.
"Un bal! il fallait de grandes toilettes."
Mémoires sur Josephine.
"Midnight revels—on their mirth and dance intent,
At once with Joy and fear her heart rebounds."
Milton.
The boudoir was a very pretty boudoir; the curtains at the window were rich rose colour, the paper a pale pink, and the fire-place like the altar of hope—one sparkling blaze. On the mantelpiece two alabaster figures supported each a little lamp, whose flame was tinted by the stained flowers; some china ornaments, purple and gold, and a vase filled with double violets, were reflected in the mirror. On the one side was a stand of moss roses, on the other a dressing-table, and a glass à la Psyche, over whose surface the wax tapers flung a soft light, worthy of any complexion, even had it rivalled the caliph Vathek's pages, whose skins "were fair as the enamel of Frangistan." In
