ay
in the winter of 1907 was a very pretty affair. Up the rose-red carpeted
stairs the guests walked, the statues looking silently on, but
apparently there was no Galatea to step down from her niche and join the
happy throng. In the antechamber each guest was asked to write his name
in the large autograph books kept for that purpose, and then, passing
on, was received by the Ambassador and Ambassadress in the first of the
splendid series of salons thrown open for the occasion. At this time it
was Mr. and Mrs. Henry White who represented the United States, and won
the hearts of all Rome as well, and assisted by their charming daughter,
Miss Muriel White, they made this ball an affair to leave its lovely
pictures in memory. The scenic setting of an old Roman palace captivates
the stranger. It may not impress him as especially comfortable, but it
is certainly picturesque, and who would not prefer--at least for the
"one night only" of the traditional _prima donna_ announcements--the
pictorially picturesque and magnificent to the merely comfortable? The
lofty ceilings, painted by artists who have long since vanished from
mortal sight, make it impossible to attain the temperature that the
American regards as essential to his terrestrial well-being, and as the
only sources of heat were the open fireplaces the guests hovered around
these and their radii of comfortable warmth were limited. In one salon
there was one especially beautiful effect of a great jar of white lilacs
placed before a vast mirror at sufficient distance to give the mirror
reflection an individuality as a thing apart, and the effect was that of
a very garden of paradise. The music was fascinating, the decorations
all in good taste, and the occasion was most brilliant,--_tres
charmante_ indeed. The American ambassadress was ablaze with her famous
diamonds, her corsage being literally covered with them, and her
coiffure adorned with a coronet, but the temperature soon forced the
ambassadress to partially eclipse her splendor with the little ermine
shoulder cape that is an indispensable article for evening dress in
Rome. The temperature does not admit the possibility of _decollete_
gowns without some protection, when these resplendent glittering robes
that seem woven of the stars are worn. Among the more distinguished
guests, aside from the _corps diplomatique_ and the titled nobility of
Rome and visiting foreigners, were M. Carolus Duran, the celebrated
portrait