Even Dalton, the most capricious and critical of
men, whose nice vision had absorbed the elegancies of European taste,
pronounced them superb. The upholstery and ornamentation were composed
under the direction of celebrated artists. Palmer was consulted on the
marbles. Page (at Rome) advised the cartoons for the frescoes, and gave
laws for the colors and disposition of the draperies. The paintings,
panelled in the walls, were modern, triumphs of the art and genius of the
New World.
Until the hour for dancing, prolonged melodies of themes modulated in the
happiest moments of the great composers floated in the perfumed air from a
company of unseen musicians, while the guests moved through the vast
apartments, charmed or exalted by their splendor, or conversed in groups,
every voice subdued and intelligent.
At midnight began the modish music of the dance, and groups of beautiful
girls moved like the atoms of Chladni on the vibrating crystal, with their
partners, to the sound of harps and violins, in pleasing figures or
inebriating spirals.
When supper was served, the ivory fronts of a cabinet of gems divided
itself in the centre,--the two halves revolving upon silver hinges,--and
discovered a hall of great height and dimensions, walled with crimson
damask, supporting pictures of all the masters of modern art.
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