The Baron de Sigognac was installed in a magnificent apartment, whose panelled walls were covered with richly embossed Spanish leather.

It was close to Isabelle's room--a delicate attention on the part of the marquis.

This superb chamber was always reserved for his most honoured guests, and in giving it to our young hero he desired to testify that he recognised and appreciated his rank, though he religiously respected his incognito.
When de Sigognac was left alone, and at liberty to think over quietly the odd situation in which he found himself, he looked at his magnificent surroundings with surprise as well as admiration--for he had never in his life seen, or even imagined, such splendour and luxury.

The rich glowing colours of the chimerical flowers and foliage embossed on a golden ground of the Spanish leather on the walls, the corresponding tints in the frescoed ceiling and the heavy, silken hangings at the windows and doors and round the bed, the elaborately carved and gilded furniture, the luxurious easy-chairs and sofas, the large mirrors with bevelled edges, and the dainty dressing-table, lavishly furnished with all the accessories of the toilet, with its oval glass draped with lace which was tied back with knots of gay ribbon, certainly did make up a charming whole, and the wood fire burning brightly in the open fireplace gave a cheerful, cosy air to it all.
Our poor young baron blushed painfully as he caught sight of his own figure in one of the long mirrors--his shabby, ill-fitting clothes looked so sadly out of place amidst all this magnificence--and for the first time in his life he felt ashamed of his poverty.

Highly unphilosophical this, but surely excusable in so young a man as our hero.