e saw that Guido had been a lover.

The ceiling of this apartment was richly painted, and richly gilt: from
it were suspended three lustres by golden cords, which threw a softened
light upon the floor of polished and curiously inlaid woods. At the end
of the apartment was an orchestra.

Round the room waltzed the elegant revellers. Softly and slowly, led by
their host, they glided along like spirits of air; but each time that
the Duke passed the musicians, the music became livelier, and the motion
more brisk, till at length you might have mistaken them for a college of
spinning dervishes. One by one, an exhausted couple retreated from the
lists. Some threw themselves on a sofa, some monopolised an easy chair;
but in twenty minutes the whirl had ceased. At length Peacock Piggott
gave a groan, which denoted returning energy, and raised a stretching
leg in air, bringing up, though most unwittingly, upon his foot, one of
the Bird's sublime and beautiful caps.

'Halloa! Piggott, armed _cap-au-pied_, I see,' said Lord Squib. This
joke was a signal for general resuscitation.

The Alhambra formed a quadrangle: all the chambers were on the basement
story. In the middle of the court of the quadrangle was a beautiful
fountain; and the court was formed by a conservatory, which was built
along each side of the interior square, and served, like a cloister
or covered way, for a communication between the different parts of the
building. To this conservatory they now repaired. It was broad, full
of rare and delicious plants and flowers, and brilliantly illuminated.
Busts and statues were intermingled with the fairy grove; and a rich,
warm hue, by a skilful arrangement of coloured lights, was thrown over
many a nymph and fair divinity, many a blooming hero and beardless god.
Here they lounged in different parties, talking on such subjects as
idlers ever fall upon; now and then plucking a flower, now and then
listening to the fountain, now and then lingering over the distant
music, and now and then strolling through a small apartment which opened
to their walks, and which bore the title of the Temple of Gnidus. Here,
Canova's Venus breathed an atmosphere of perfume and of light; that
wonderful statue, whose full-charged eye is not very classical, to be
sure; but then, how true!

While they were thus whiling away their time, Lord Squib proposed a
visit to the theatre, which he had ordered to be lit up. To the theatre
they repaired. Th