AC dBooks

A
covered corridor connecting the theatre with the house was being lined
with immense hydrangeas and lit from the roof by lamps that resembled
stars.
A few days before the day fixed for the event Alma, who had been too
much occupied to see me every day in the boudoir to which I confined
myself, came up to give me my instructions.
The entertainment was to begin at ten o'clock. I was to be dressed as
Cleopatra and to receive my guests in the drawing-room. At the sound of
a fanfare of trumpets I was to go into the theatre preceded by a line of
pages, and accompanied by my husband. After we had taken our places in a
private box a great ballet, brought specially from a London music-hall,
was to give a performance lasting until midnight. Then there was to be a
cotillon, led by Alma herself with my husband, and after supper the
dancing was to be resumed and kept up until sunrise, when a basketful of
butterflies and doves (sent from the South of France) were to be
liberated from cages, and to rise in a multicoloured cloud through the
sunlit space.


Pages:
635 636 637 638 639 640 641 642 643 644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659