It was the most brilliant ball which had ever been given in the English capital.
The very waiters sparkled with diamonds!
The gorgeous suite of apartments, several miles in length, were ablaze with all that wealth and beauty in electric light could effect.
Coote and Tinney’s band was in attendance.
Down the sparkling avenues of lustres whirled the revellers in all the ecstasy of the hilarious dance.
Peals of laughter and the rustling of fans combined to make the scene the most gorgeous ever witnessed in this or any other metropolis.
The host of the princely revel was a mysterious young foreign nobleman, known by the name of the Duc de Septimominorelli, and reputed to be the richest man in Europe.
What makes this evening’s entertainment particularly brilliant is the fact that it is to be graced by the dazzling presence of the peerless Donna Velvetina Peeleretta, who, as every one knows, is shortly to wear the diamond tiara of the house of Septimominorelli.
In other words, she and the Duc are betrothed.
The festivities are at their height, and the Duc for the fifth time is leading his charming fiancée to the supper-room, when the venerable butler announces, in a voice that attracts universal attention, a new arrival.