r very
flattering explanation with as much qualified pleasure as if it were
really founded on truth."

"In order more effectually to convince you, madame, that nothing is more
correct than all I have asserted, let us make a few observations
touching the fine effect of praise in animating and lighting up the
countenance."

"Ah, my lord, you are laying a very mischievous snare for me," said the
countess, smiling.

"Well, then, I will abandon that idea; but upon one condition, that you
honour me by taking my arm. I have been told wonderful things of a
'Winter Garden,'--a work from Fairyland. May I put up my humble petition
to be allowed to see this new wonder of a 'hundred and one nights?'"

"Oh, my lord, with the utmost pleasure. But I see that your highness had
received a most exaggerated account. Perhaps you will accompany me, and
judge for yourself. Only in this instance I would fain hope that your
habitual indulgence may induce you to feel as little disappointment as
possible at finding how imperfectly the reality equals your
expectations."

The ambassadress then took the offered arm of Rodolph, and proceeded
with him to the other salons, while the count remained conversing with
the Baron de Grauen and Murphy, whom he had been acquainted with for some
time.

And a more beautiful scene of enchantment never charmed the eye than
that presented by the aspect of the winter garden, to which Rodolph had
conducted his noble hostess. Let the reader imagine an enclosure of
about forty feet in length, and thirty in width (leading out of a long
and splendid gallery), surmounted by a glazed and vaulted roof, the
building being securely covered in for about fifty feet. Round the
parallelogram it described, the walls were concealed by an infinite
number of mirrors, over which was placed a small and delicate trellis of
fine green rushes, which, thanks to the strong light reflected on the
highly polished glass, resembled an arbour, and were almost entirely
hidden by a thick row of orange-trees, as large as those of the
Tuileries, mixed with camellias of equal size; while the golden fruit
and verdant foliage of the one contrasted beautifully with the rich
clusters of waxen flowers, of all colours, with which the other was
loaded. The remainder of the garden was thus devised:

Five or six enormous clumps of trees, and Indian or other tropical
shrubs, planted in immense cases filled with peat earth, were surrounded
by alleys pa