As I was masked I received after our performance quantities of compliments which the fact that I was disguised permitted people to make me. There was no raised platform or throne. Everybody in the room was on the same level and all wore masks. A domino whom I recognized spoke to me and said, “How dazzling you are! One cannot look at you.”
”I should make a good prize, should not I, with all of the diamonds I have on?”
”You know very well,” he replied, “that the most beautiful diamond of all, the diamond that is simply priceless, is the one hidden under all the rest.”
The domino was the Emperor, and compliments from him were so rare that these remarks flattered me greatly.
