CHAPTER V.
VAN DE WERVE'S RECEPTION--SIMON TURCHI'S JEALOUSY AND HATRED.
Mr.Van de Werve, whose large fortune justified a lavish expenditure, was accustomed to receive at his residence every month the principal gentlemen of Antwerp, strangers as well as citizens.

His love for art and science induced him to bring together the best artists and the most noted literary men of the day with the high-born, wealthy, and influential members of society at Antwerp; and his house had become the rendezvous of all that was excellent and celebrated in the city.
Nearly the whole of the anterior part of the house was occupied by a vast hall, called the _Ancestral Hall_, because it was decorated by numberless souvenirs of his illustrious family.

The walls, for a certain distance were sculptured in oak wood, so artistically designed, and so delicately wrought, that at the first glance it looked like embroidery in various colors.

To produce this effect, the natural brown of the oak had been left in some places.

All the rest shone with gold and silver, which was relieved by a beautiful scarlet, brilliant yellow, and the softest sky-blue.