ing that
he was staring at them. "My husband employed a connoisseur to hunt them
out for him. He did it before we were married--he thought it would make
me happy."

In the centre of the place there was a fountain, twelve or fourteen
feet in height, and set in a basin of purest Carrara marble. By the
touch of a button the pool was flooded with submerged lights, and one
might see scores of rare and beautiful fish swimming about.

"Isn't it fine!" said Mrs. Winnie, and added eagerly, "Do you know, I
come here at night, sometimes when I can't sleep, and sit for hours and
gaze. All those living things; with their extraordinary forms-some of
them have faces, and look like human beings! And I wonder what they
think about, and if life seems as strange to them as it does to me."

She seated herself by the edge of the pool, and gazed in. "These fish
were given to me by my cousin, Ned Carter. They call him Buzzie. Have
you met him yet?--No, of course not. He's Charlie's brother, and he
collects art things--the most unbelievable things. Once, a long time
ago, he took a fad for goldfish--some goldfish are very rare and
beautiful, you know--one can pay twenty-five and fifty dollars apiece
for them. He got all the dealers had, and when he learned that there
were some they couldn't get, he took a trip to Japan and China on
purpose to get them. You know they raise them there, and some of them
are sacred, and not allowed to be sold or taken out of the country. And
he had all sorts of carved ivory receptacles for them, that he brought
home with him--he had one beautiful marble basin about ten feet long,
that had been stolen from the Emperor."

Over Montague's shoulder where he sat, there hung an orchid, a most
curious creation, an explosion of scarlet flame. "That is the
odonto-glossum," said Mrs. Winnie. "Have you heard of it?"

"Never," said the man.

"Dear me," said the other. "Such is fame!"

"Is it supposed to be famous?" he asked.

"Very," she replied. "There was a lot in the newspapers about it. You
see Winton--that's my husband, you know--paid twenty-five thousand
dollars to the man who created it; and that made a lot of foolish
talk--people come from all over to look at it. I wanted to have it,
because its shape is exactly like the coronet on my crest. Do you
notice that?"

"Yes," said Montague. "It's curious."

"I'm very proud of my crest," continued Mrs. Winnie. "Of course there
are vulgar rich people who have them