the ready-lighted lamps, the iris-root clinging to the dresses of the
guests, as with odours from the [78] altars of the gods, the supper-
table was spread, in all the daintiness characteristic of the
agreeable petit-maitre, who entertained. He was already most
carefully dressed, but, like Martial's Stella, perhaps consciously,
meant to change his attire once and again during the banquet; in the
last instance, for an ancient vesture (object of much rivalry among
the young men of fashion, at that great sale of the imperial
wardrobes) a toga, of altogether lost hue and texture. He wore it
with a grace which became the leader of a thrilling movement then on
foot for the restoration of that disused garment, in which, laying
aside the customary evening dress, all the visitors were requested to
appear, setting off the delicate sinuosities and well-disposed
"golden ways" of its folds, with harmoniously tinted flowers. The
opulent sunset, blending pleasantly with artificial light, fell
across the quiet ancestral effigies of old consular dignitaries,
along the wide floor strewn with sawdust of sandal-wood, and lost
itself in the heap of cool coronals, lying ready for the foreheads of
the guests on a sideboard of old citron. The crystal vessels
darkened with old wine, the hues of the early autumn fruit--
mulberries, pomegranates, and grapes that had long been hanging under
careful protection upon the vines, were almost as much a feast for
the eye, as the dusky fires of the rare twelve-petalled roses. A
favourite animal, white as snow, brought by one of the visitors,
purred its way [79] gracefully among the wine-cups, coaxed onward
from place to place by those at table, as they reclined easily on
their cushions of German eider-down, spread over the long-legged,
carved couches.

A highly refined modification of the acroama--a musical performance