midnight
`` Come , come , '' said Vaura , brightly , `` see the sunlight streaming in upon the sky-like walls ; so our lives will be happy now in union once more . '' `` You are a sunbeam , Vaura ; and here comes Somers to lead me to the room of pink . '' `` Which I hope will prove the pink of perfection , god-mother mine ; and now , uncle , to see Madame , on and off the canvas , ere I retire to my vernal apartment . '' On the way to the ball-room the corridors were almost deserted , the fair sex either closeted with their maids discussing the war-paint for the midnight revels , or wooing the god of slumber with a narcotic ; the men flirting with their unwearied sisters anywhere , or killing time with the balls in the billiard-room . But the ball-room is reached ; over the velvet hangings which drape the entrance , and which are of scarlet , on which are painted blue grapes with their green vine leaves ; for contrast , the yellow sun-flower , with heavy , many-coloured fringe ; -- as a heading to the drape are the words in letters of gold formed by leaves of the vine : `` Dedicated to Comus and Kate . '' It was a fitting room for revelry , with its gaily painted walls and ceiling , now with its ropes of natural blossoms festooning windows and chaining gasalier to gasalier . The door of the long conservatories were open , and so the air was redolent of sweetness almost intoxicating .