And all the people inside looked at Karen's red shoes, and all the figures gazed at them; when Karen knelt before the altar and put the golden goblet to her mouth, she thought only of the red shoes.

In a large basin in front of the altar, several dozen chunks of charcoal, piled up like a mountain, glowed hotly with a bright red flame.

Before the ancestral shrine stood a rectangular altar table covered with a red velvet cloth.