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Duchesse's boudoir was fitted up in a style of luxury utterly different from anything before familiar to the Carraras. They had been accustomed to the extensive halls, the large pictures, the mosaic floors, the marble pillars, whose romantic magnificence belonged to other times. Here the splendour was more adapted to the actual enjoyments of the present day. The walls were hung with blue silk, edged with silver fringe; and the closely-drawn blue velvet curtains swept the ground. On one side was a dressing-table covered with white satin, whose border of flowers, wrought in rich and natural colours, emulated those of April. On it stood a mirror in a frame of curiously cut crystal and silver; and scattered round lay half-open boxes, whose glittering contents were equally