ssed swiftly into another large and imposing apartment.
"This I call the Sala de los Embajadores; here is where I receive my
distinguished guests."

"Good!" cried Jane, who knew Irving's 'Alhambra' by heart. "Only it
isn't Moorish; it's Baroque--and a very good example."

The room had a heavy paneled ceiling of dark wood, with a cartouche in
each panel; stacks of seventeenth-century armor stood in the corners,
half a dozen large Aubusson tapestries hung on the walls, and a vast
fireplace, flanked by huge Atlantes and crowned by a heavy pediment,
broken and curled, almost filled one whole side. "That fireplace is
Baroque all over."

"See here," said Mrs. Bates, suddenly, "are you the woman who read
about the 'Decadence of the Renaissance Forms' at the last
Fortnightly?"

"I'm the woman," responded Jane modestly.

"I don't know why I didn't recognize you before. But you sat in an
awfully bad light, for one thing. Besides, I had so much on my mind
that day. Our dear little Reginald was coming down with something--or
so we thought. And the bonnet I was forced to wear--well, it just made
me blue. You didn't notice it?"

"I was too flustered to notice anything. It was my first time there."

"Well, it was a good paper, although I couldn't half pay attention to
it; it gave me several new notions. All my decorations, then--you
think them corrupt and degraded?"

"Well," returned Jane, at once soothing and judicial, "all these later
forms are interesting from a historical and sociological point of
view. And lots of people find them beautiful, too, for that matter."
Jane slid over these big words with a practiced ease.

"They impressed my notables, any way," retorted Mrs. Bates. "We
entertained a good deal during the Fair--it was expected, of course,
from people of our position. We had princes and counts and honorables
without end. I remember how delighted I was with my first prince--a
Russian. H'm! later in the season Russian princes were as plentiful as
blackberries: you stepped on one at every turn. We had some of the
English too. One of their young men visited us at Geneva during the
summer. I never quite made out who invited him; I have half an idea
that he invited himself. He was a great trial. Queer about the
English, isn't it? How can people who are so clever and capable in
practical things ever be such insolent tom-fools in social things?
Well, we might just stick our noses in the picture gallery for a
minute.