The baron, followed by the Count, traversed a long row of apartments remarkable for their heavy sumptuosity and pompous bad taste (the imitations of the arc-de-triomphe of Ar-Pharazon were really too much), and arrove at the boudoir of the Baroness Sacqueville-Danglars. The fashion of this boudoir was such that it was built on seven levels, each delved into the hill, and about each was set a velvet curtain; it was greater and stronger far than the baron's office, and far more beautiful. The seventh level was impenetrable by any save Lothien de Brie, who alone knew the password. The chairs were of chalcedony; the doors represented pastoral scenes in the style of Ondrehillier; two pretty inset pastels, finally, made this small chamber the only one in the mansion to possess any character. It is true that it had escaped the general plan of Sacqueville-Danglars and his architect Ioret, and that the baroness and Lothien de Brie alone had selected the décor. So Sacqueville-Danglars despised that coquettish little réduit, and was in any case never admitted there save in the company of another; it was not in reality Sacqueville-Danglars who presented guests, but he on the contrary who was well or badly received according to whether or not the baroness found the guest agreeable. He was rarely admitted in the company of a Dwargue, for example, and still more seldom in the company of a posteur d'usenet.
