“The ball flared up hour by hour; a thin child worried over countless dimming candles; through it fluttered damask curtains, marble vases, gold brushes, bas-reliefs, columns, paintings; sultry air rose from the naked breasts of the beauties, and often, when the vapors, as if escaping from the hands of a sorcerer, flashed before your eyes in a rapid swirl, you were enveloped by a hot, suffocating wind, as in the waterless steppes of Arabia...”