an Algerian divan, for the use of smokers. The
boudoir up-stairs communicated with the bed-chamber by an invisible door
on the staircase; it was evident that every precaution had been taken.
Above this floor was a large atelier, which had been increased in size
by pulling down the partitions--a pandemonium, in which the artist and
the dandy strove for preeminence. There were collected and piled up all
Albert's successive caprices, hunting-horns, bass-viols, flutes--a whole
orchestra, for Albert had had not a taste but a fancy for music; easels,
palettes, brushes, pencils--for music had been succeeded by painting;
foils, boxing-gloves, broadswords, and single-sticks--for, following
the example of the fashionable young men of the time, Albert de Morcerf
cultivated, with far more perseverance than music and drawing, the
three arts that complete a dandy's education, i.e., fencing, boxing,
and single-stick; and it was here that he received Grisier, Cook,
and Charles Leboucher. The rest of the furniture of this privileged
apartment consisted of old cabinets, filled with Chinese porcelain and
Japanese vases, Lucca della Robbia faience, and Palissy platters; of old
arm-chairs, in which perhaps had sat Henry IV. or Sully, Louis XIII. or
Richelieu--for two of these arm-chairs, adorned with a carved shield,
on which were engraved the fleur-de-lis of France on an azure field
evidently came from the Louvre, or, at least, some royal residence. Over
these dark and sombre chairs were thrown splendid stuffs, dyed beneath
Persia's sun, or woven by the fingers of the women of Calcutta or of
Chandernagor. What these stuffs did there, it was impossible to say;
they awaited, while gratifying the eyes, a destination unknown to their
owner himself; in the meantime they filled the place with their golden
and silky reflections. In the centre of the room was a Roller and
Blanchet "baby grand" piano in rosewood, but holding the potentialities
of an orchestra in its narrow and sonorous cavity, and groaning beneath
the weight of the chefs-d'oeuvre of Beethoven, Weber, Mozart, Haydn,
Gretry, and Porpora. On the walls, over the doors, on the ceiling, were
swords, daggers, Malay creeses, maces, battle-axes; gilded, damasked,
and inlaid suits of armor; dried plants, minerals, and stuffed birds,
their flame-colored wings outspread in motionless flight, and their
beaks forever open. This was Albert's favorite lounging place.

However, the morning of the ap