t seen
with me there in the beginning of the evening, it will matronize
me enough; and then I have engaged to dance the 'German' with Mr.
Endicott, and I believe they keep that up till nobody knows when. But
I am determined to see the whole through."

"Yes, yes! see it all through," said Mr. Van Astrachan. "Young people
must be young. It's all right enough, and you won't miss my Polly
after you get fairly into it near so much as I shall. I'll sit up for
her till twelve o'clock, and read my paper."

Rose was at first, to say the truth, bewildered and surprised by the
perfect labyrinth of fairy-land which Charlie Ferrola's artistic
imagination had created in the Follingsbee mansion.

Initiated people, who had travelled in Europe, said it put them in
mind of the "Jardin Mabille;" and those who had not were reminded of
some of the wonders of "The Black Crook." There were apartments turned
into bowers and grottoes, where the gas-light shimmered behind veils
of falling water, and through pendant leaves of all sorts of strange
water-plants of tropical regions. There were all those wonderful
leaf-plants of every weird device of color, which have been conjured
up by tricks of modern gardening, as Rappacini is said to have created
his strange garden in Padua. There were beds of hyacinths and crocuses
and tulips, made to appear like living gems by the jets of gas-light
which came up among them in glass flowers of the same form. Far away
in recesses were sofas of soft green velvet turf, overshadowed by
trailing vines, and illuminated with moonlight-softness by hidden
alabaster lamps. The air was heavy with the perfume of flowers, and
the sound of music and dancing from the ball-room came to these
recesses softened by distance.

The Follingsbee mansion occupied a whole square of the city; and
these enchanted bowers were created by temporary enlargements of the
conservatory covering the ground of the garden. With money, and the
Croton Water-works, and all the New-York greenhouses at disposal,
nothing was impossible.

There was in this reception no vulgar rush or crush or jam. The
apartments opened were so extensive, and the attractions in so
many different directions, that there did not appear to be a crowd
anywhere.

There was no general table set, with the usual liabilities of rush and
crush; but four or five well-kept rooms, fragrant with flowers and
sparkling with silver and crystal, were ready at any hour to minister
to