Page:The life and writings of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) (IA lifewritingsofal00spurrich).pdf/87

 balcony, pale, wiping the sweat from his brow, and alone.

Jenny has disappeared—Voilà tout!"

It was at this period of his fortunes, when he was writing with Anicet Bourgeois "Teresa," which he describes as "one of my worst," and "Angèle," which he considered one of his best plays, that Dumas gave his famous ball. As he wished to invite three hundred guests, and had only four rooms in which to receive them, he hired another suite from his landlord. Three days before the eventful night, Dumas turned ten of the foremost painters of France into these empty rooms to decorate them, and as the great men were all friends of the young author, this was at once an economy, an attraction, and a novelty. With the same object of saving expense, Dumas took some friends out of town, and they shot their own game for the feast.

It was a brilliant affair, for it was a costume ball, and all Bohemia-in-Paris gathered in the little rooms, which by midnight were crowded with dazzling dresses, and filled with laughter and music. Here, among others, came Lafayette, Rossini, De Musset, Suc, Lemaître, Mars, Georges, Dejazet and Delacroix—who had painted the panel allotted to him in two or three hours! M. Tissot, of the Academy, went "made up" as a sick man, whereupon Jadin followed him as a long-faced, funereal-looking under-