How he wished, in this moment of glory and triumph, that
Scapin, his mortal enemy and merciless tormentor, could see him. The
tiny page stepped on before him, and after opening a large glass door
and showing him into a spacious apartment, furnished with great luxury
and elegance, retired and left him alone, without a word. The vaulted
ceiling--which was the interior of the dome seen from without--was
painted to represent a light blue sky, in which small rosy clouds were
floating, and bewitching little Loves flying about in all sorts of
graceful attitudes, while the walls were hung with beautiful tapestry.
The cabinets, inlaid with exquisite Florentine mosaics and filled with
many rare and curious objects of virtu, the round table covered with
a superb Turkish cloth, the large, luxurious easy-chairs, the vases of
priceless porcelain filled with fragrant flowers, all testified to
the wealth and fastidious taste of their owner. The richly gilded
candelabra, of many branches, holding clusters of wax candles, which
shed their soft, mellow light on all this magnificence, were upheld
by sculptured arms and hands in black marble, to represent a negro's,
issuing from fantastic white marble sleeves; as if the sable attendants
were standing without the room, and had passed their arms through
apertures in the wall.
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