s time, into a deeper nirvana.

They were coming now to a large estate, the grounds of which were
brightly illuminated. Outside the iron palings a crowd of beggars
shrieked and gesticulated. Within, all was gayety. La Fleur and his
fellows dismounted with their burden. They laid the inanimate form of
the Norman girl on a litter and covered it with a white canopy. As
this strange pallet awaits the Master's wishes in anteroom, let us
take a peep at the celebrated Sunken Gardens.

Bel-Air had been beautified in the lovely exedra style for which Petit
Trianon is noted. Art blended so cunningly with Nature one might
almost mistake marble Venus for live goddess or flesh-and-blood naiads
of the lake for carved caryatides. The very musicians seemed children
of Pan as they tuned their lyres and fiddles in woodland nook.

Before the splashing fountain supported by little naked Loves in
marble--flanked by balustrades and bordered by screens of myriad
crystalline glass drops--a cool white pavement invited the gay minuet.
Beyond, a huge banquet table groaned with delicacies and wines the
cost of which would have gone far to rationing the thirty thousand
hungry of the nearby City. Indeed, enough was wasted to have fed many.
With bizarre and often gross entertainment Marquis de Praille amused
his guests who themselves presented a wanton and amorous scene that
seemed itself a part of the elaborately staged revels.

What gallantry, what passion, what low asides and snatched kisses! as
the squirming dancers intoxicated the spectators' sense or gauzily
draped coryphees plunged in the pool now converted into a fountain of
wine. The elegant gentlemen and the audacious women guests--themselves
miracles of bold costuming and sixty-inch snow-white coiffures--knew
the play foretold the coarser revels that all would indulge in after
midnight.

Around the banqueting tables a number of ladies and gentlemen were
seated, some still toying with the savory viands and drinking rare
vintages of Champagne, whilst others idly watched the dancers or
discussed the latest court news and high life scandal.

"Well, what do you think of my retreat from the whirl and bustle of
Paris?" asked Marquis de Praille of his vis-a-vis, who was a dashing
sort of beauty.

"My dear Marquis," replied that lady, "I am delighted. It is a
satisfaction to find a gentleman who maintains the customs of his
rank."

"And yet there are fools who want to change them," exclai