-crystal, sparkling with facets, streaming with drops, ablaze with stars,
and gorgeously tinged with dews of gems dissolved, or fragments of rainbows
shivered. It was only the chandelier, reader, but for me it seemed the work of
eastern genii: I almost looked to see if a huge, dark cloudy hand - that of the
Slave of the Lamp - were not hovering in the lustrous and perfumed atmosphere of
the cupola, guarding its wondrous treasure.
    We moved on - I was not at all conscious whither - but at some turn we
suddenly encountered another party approaching from the opposite direction. I
just now see that group, as it flashed upon me for one moment. A handsome
middle-aged lady in dark velvet; a gentleman who might be her son - the best
face, the finest figure, I thought, I had ever seen; a third person in a pink
dress and black lace mantle.
    I noted them all - the third person as well as the other two - and for the
fraction of a moment, believed them all strangers, thus receiving an impartial
impression of their appearance. But the impression was hardly felt and not
fixed, before the consciousness that I faced a great mirror, filling a
compartment between two pillars, dispelled it: the party was our own party. Thus
for the first, and perhaps only time in my life, I enjoyed the giftie of seeing
myself as others see me. No need to dwell on the result. It brought a jar of
discord, a pang of regret; it was not flattering, yet, after all, I ought to be
thankful: it might have been worse.
    At last, we were seated in places commanding a good general view of that
vast and dazzling, but warm and cheerful hall. Already it was filled, and filled
with a splendid assemblage. I do not know that the women were very beautiful,
but their dresses were so perfect; and foreigners, even such as are ungraceful
in domestic privacy, seem to possess the art of appearing graceful in public:
however blunt and boisterous those every-day and home movements connected with
peignoir and papillotes, there is a slide, a bend, a carriage of the head and
arms, a mien of the mouth and eyes, kept nicely in reserve for gala use - always
brought out with the grande toilette, and duly put on with the parure.
    Some fine forms there were here and there, models of a peculiar style of
beauty; a style, I think, never seen in England: a solid, firm-set, sculptural
style. These
