A new actress in the drama--all ripples, laughter, and girlish abandon--Mrs. Colfax--came bouncing into the “eastern scene.” She had thrown aside her wrappings in the dressing-room, and appeared clad in rich white silk court-train over a black silk petticoat, and a white pom-pon in her hair. Her neck and arms were bare, and in through the open windows came the biting winds. The lithe, elastic frame shuddered like a jaunty yacht caught in the jaws of a terrific nor’wester, but succor was close at hand in shape of covering, and the pearly shoulders disappeared from view. Next came Mrs. Governor Cooke, magnificently arrayed in filmy lace and light green. If the fountains in the corner had been larger and she had been more sylph-like the play of Undine might have been performed. At last the tarletan was tacked, the last pot of flowers planted, the floor mopped, the last bird--cage hung, the gas-jets lighted, and the reception ladies had disposed themselves on the sofas. Let it be remembered there were no other seats in the room. The door swung open on its noiseless hinges, and in walked the precious Japanese men, who had got themselves up in “Melican fashion” to please us rude barbarians of the West. How poor, weak, and shammy everything must have seemed to their almond-shaped eyes! Flower-pots and pink tarletan, a bit of bright carpet, a cold, damp floor, a wintry atmosphere faced them. As they walked through the narrow path which opened in the throng and led to the upper end of the hall, they saw seated before them women no longer young and some of them far advanced into that period which is called the “sere and yellow leaf of age,” with shoulders exposed below the point of modesty (if there is any such place in that delicate region), arms bare above the elbow! What a lesson it must have conveyed to our visitors! And yet these women tried to look beautiful! The foreign ministers, with their wives and daughters, had drawn themselves into the usual diplomatic knot. There was the tall and queenly Lady Thornton, elegant in pink silk and Chambrey gauze; and Sir Edward Kingly as a knight of old; and pretty Madame Roberts, the wife of the Spanish minister, in quaint costume, regardless of expense; magnificent Mademoiselle Freyre, the daughter of the Peruvian minister, who was the most gorgeously and costly appareled of any woman in the temple. A moderate fortune of diamonds nestled in her hair, whilst bust, arms and ears sparkled like the cave wherein was caught unfortunate Sinbad the Sailor.