About a month later, Dorian Gray was relaxing in a luxurious armchair in the small library of Lord Henry’s house in Mayfair.
It was a beautiful room. The lower walls were paneled with oak stained an olive color. Above them were cream-colored walls and an elaborate plaster ceiling. Persian rugs with long silk fringes lay across the reddish carpet.
On a small satinwood table stood a little sculpture by Clodion. Beside it lay an old French book beautifully bound for Margaret of Valois and decorated with golden daisies, the flower she had chosen as her personal symbol.
Large blue china jars and bright tulips decorated the mantelpiece.
Through the small panes of the windows, the warm orange light of a London summer afternoon entered the room.
Lord Henry had not arrived yet.
Harry was always late on principle. He liked to say that punctuality stole time from a person.