ich was nothing but gold,
mirrors, flowers, satin, and lace; then a small music-room, in which was
a harp and piano (M. de Saint-Remy was an excellent musician); a cabinet
of pictures; and then the boudoir, which communicated with the
conservatory; a dining-room for two persons, who were served and passed
away the dishes and plates by a turning window; a bath-room, a model of
luxury and Oriental refinement; and, close at hand, a small library, a
portion of which was arranged after the catalogue of that which La
Mettrie had collected for Frederic the Great. Such was this apartment.

It would be unavailing to say that all these rooms, furnished with
exquisite taste, and with a Sardanapalian luxury, had as ornaments
Watteaus little known; Bouchers never engraved; wanton subjects,
formerly purchased at enormous prices. There were, besides, groups
modelled in terra-cotta, by Clodien, and here and there, on plinths of
jasper or antique breccia, some rare copies, in white marble, of the
most jovial and lovely bacchanals of the Secret Museum of Naples.

Add to this, in summer there were in perspective the green recesses of a
well-planted garden, lonely, replete with flowers and birds, watered by
a small and sparkling fountain, which, before it spread itself on the
verdant turf, fell from a black and shaggy rock, scintillated like a
strip of silver gauze, and dashed into a clear basin like
mother-of-pearl, where beautiful white swans wantoned with grace and
freedom.

Then, when the mild and serene night came on, what shade, what perfume,
what silence, was there in those odorous clumps, whose thick foliage
served as a dais for the rustic seats formed of reeds and Indian mats.

During the winter, on the contrary, except the glass door which opened
to the hothouse, all was kept close shut. The transparent silk of the
blinds, the net lace of the curtains, made the daylight still more
mysterious. On all the pieces of furniture large tufts of exotic plants
seemed to put forth their large flowers, resplendent with gold and
enamel.

In order to do the honours of this temple, which seemed raised to
antique Love, or the denuded divinities of Greece, behold a man, young,
handsome, elegant, and distinguished,--by turns witty and tender,
romantic or libertine; now jesting and gay to folly, now full of charm
and grace; an excellent musician, gifted with one of those impassioned,
vibrating voices which women cannot hear without experienci