light of dramatic usages and imagery, imparts to it a keener,

dazzled all eyes. The flowers of the carpet were like a garden. The

richest "bibelots" and curiosities danced before the eyes of the new-

At first, and in the state to which Georges had brought them, the

clerks, and more particularly Oscar, believed in the Marquise de las

Florentinas y Cabirolos. Gold glittered on four card-tables in the

bed-chamber. In the salon, the women were playing at vingt-et-un, kept

by Nathan, the celebrated author.

After wandering, tipsy and half asleep, through the dark exterior