rame,
made to appear, by a cunning arrangement of dark draperies, like a
transparent portion of the wall itself, extended the magnificence of the
apartments.

Not a flame nor a jet was anywhere visible. Tinted vases, pendent, or
resting upon pedestals, distributed harmonies and thoughts of light rather
than light itself; and yet all was visible, effulgent. The columns which
separated the apartments seemed to be composed of masses of richly-colored
flames, compelled, by some ingenious alchemy, to assume the form and
office of columns.

In New York, _par excellence_ the city of private gorgeousness and
_petite_ magnificence, nothing had yet been seen equal to the rooms of the
glorious Denslow Palace. 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. The dome-
like roof of this hall was of marble variously colored, and the floor
tessellated and mosaicked in grotesque and graceful figures of Vesuvian
lavas and painted porcelain.

The tables, couches, chairs, and _vis-a-vis_ in this hall were of plain
pattern and neutral dead colors, not to overpower or fade the pictures on
the walls, or the gold and Parian service of the cedar tables.

But the chief beauty of