Guimard, for whom it had been built by the Duke de Soubise.

Like so many other fine houses, it had been confiscated by the Revolution and sold at auction--or, rather, had been disposed of by lottery, a lady who had paid one hundred and twenty francs for her ticket winning it.
The winner of the palace sold it to M.Perigaud, a banker and shrewd speculator, who divided the large dwelling into suites of apartments, which became the favorite lodgings of the young men of fashion.

These young men were called the "narcissi," and later, the "incroyables" and "_petits creves_." The building, however, retained the name of the Palace of Narcissus.
When the fiacre stopped at the door of the palace which led to her mama's apartment, the little countess alighted with her escort, and said to the coachman: "You need not wait; the marquis will return home in my mama's carriage." M.Cambray was obliged to submit to be called the "marquis." The harmless fib was due to the rank of the little countess; she could not have driven through the streets of Paris in the same fiacre with a _pekin_! "We will not go up the main staircase," said the child, taking her companion's arm and leading him into the palace.

"I don't want to meet any of the servants.

We will go directly to mama's boudoir, and take her by surprise." The countess mother, however, was not in her boudoir; only a screaming cockatoo, and a capuchin monkey that grimaced a welcome.