Behind the Bronze Door by William Le Queux

Of all the balls that have been given at Albert Hall within the past ten or twelve years, none has approached in its splendor, or in the luxury of its appointment and setting "the pageant worthy of Ancient Rome," as some of the newspapers termed it, which took place in July, 1919.

The whole of the interior of the vast building had been painted and decorated in an amazingly artistic manner, and utterly regardless of expense. All the seasons were presented in turn in a gigantic panorama, which depicted also the most daring love scenes described in the well-known classics. True, a few London journals and many provincial papers clamored to know why so huge a sum should have been spent on "decking out" one great ball-room, seeing that the ball had been organized "ostensibly in aid of charity," but the cavillers received no answer. Heckled on the point by a Parliamentary representative of advanced Socialistic views, Stapleton calmly replied that "if you set out to make money you must spend money to make it," an argument which proved its soundness when the accounts came to be totaled up and an enormous sum was handed to charity.