is instance is peculiarly agreeable."

"As I thought," replied the regent. "Had you hesitated, I should have
called your attention to the fact that the table of the Palais Royal is
considered to possess somewhat of character. The Vicomte de Bechamel is
at the very zenith of his genius, and he daily produces dishes such as
all Paris has not ever dreamed. Moreover, we have been fortunate in some
recent additions of most excellent _vin d'Ai_. I make no doubt, upon the
whole, we shall find somewhat with which to occupy ourselves."

Thus it came about that, upon that evening, there gathered at the
entrance of the Palais Royal, after an evening with Lecouvreur at the
Theatre Francais, some scattered groups of persons evidently possessing
consequence. The chairs of others, from more distant locations,
threading their way through the narrow, dark and unlighted streets of
the old, crude capital of France, brought their passengers in time to a
scene far different from that of the gloomy streets.

The little supper of the regent, arranged in the private _salle_, whose
decorations had been devised for the special purpose, was more
entrancing than even the glitter of the mimic world of the Theatre
Francais. There extended down the center of the room, though filling but
a small portion of its vast extent, the grand table provided for the
banquet, a reach of snowy linen, broken at the upper end by the arm of
an abbreviated cross. At each end of this cross-arm stood magnificent
candelabra, repeated at intervals along the greater extension of the
board. Noble epergnes, filled with the choicest plants, found their
reflections in plates of glass cunningly inlaid here and there upon the
surface of the table. Vast mirrors, framed in wreaths of roses and
surmounted by little laughing cupids, gleamed in the walls of the room,
and in the faces of these mirrors were reflected the beams of the
many-colored tapers, carried in brackets of engraved gold and silver and
many-colored glasses. The ceiling of the room was a soft mass of silken
draperies, depending edgewise from above, thousands of yards of the most
expensive fabrics of the world. From these, as they were gently swayed
by the breath of invisible fans, there floated delicious, languorous
perfumes, intoxicating to the senses. On any hand within the great room,
removed at some distance from the table, were rich, luxurious couches
and divans.

As one trod within the door of this temple of