Stonefaced guards in starched uniforms stare sullenly at the Americans walking the richly paneled, red-carpeted halls.

"Welcome to the factory," someone calls out breezily as a visitor makes her way down a long, red-carpeted hall backstage at the Metropolitan Opera House, where American Ballet Theater is ensconced through June 4.

The red-carpeted hall was not large, sixty by forty feet, the reporter-Blaise guessed, all gilded and painted.

The front door was opened by a security guard who looked like a Middle Eastern thug; they were received in a red-carpeted hall, by a butler, who led them through double doors into a large, ornately decorated drawing room.

The elevator stops and they walk down the soft, red-carpeted hall to his door.

Inside, two vast red-carpeted halls - the Hall of States and the Hall of Nations - connect with an even vaster grand foyer.

He certainly did; the lift opened into a square red-carpeted hall and she couldn't even hear anyone else.

At a more sedate pace, Maddie continued with Aimee to the end of a plush, red-carpeted hall, squinting against the late afternoon sun that penetrated the thick windows.

Lafayette sprang up, ran to the high, ornately carved, silver-handled door, pushed through into the red-carpeted hall.