But, regardless of those things, it was a happy and awesome party. The tastes of the duke were awkward. He had really got an eye for detail for colors and effects. He ignored the simple fashion decorations. His plans were audacious and fiery, and his ideas glowed with a barbarian brightness. There are who would say he was crazy. His followers believed he was not. It was necessary to hear and see and touch him to be sure he was not. 

But first let me tell of the rooms in which it was held. There were seven — an imperial suite. In many palaces, however, these suites form a long and straight view, while the folding doors slide back nearly to the walls, so the view of the whole extension in not impeded. But not in this palace. It will be expected from a duke with peculiar taste, right? The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced nothing more than one at a time. There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty meters, and at each turn, a new movie- like effect. To the right and left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow gothic window looked out before the curves going on. These windows were of a kind of glass whose color varied in accordance with prevailing decorations colors of the chamber into which it opened. That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue — and vividly blue were its windows.