"We will also go and find some quiet,
deserted place where we can talk undisturbed."
CHAPTER III.
MOTHER AND DAUGHTER.
Louise du Trouffle drew her husband onward, and they both followed
silently the great crowd which was now entering the splendidly
illuminated conservatories. The view offered to the eye was superb.
You seemed to be suddenly transplanted as if by magic from the
stiff, ceremonious court-saloons into the fresh, fragrant, blooming
world of nature. You breathed with rapture the odor of those rare
and lovely flowers which were arranged in picturesque order between
the evergreen myrtles and oranges. The windows, and indeed the
ceiling were entirely covered with vines, and seemed to give color
to the illusion that you were really walking in an open alley.
Colored Chinese balloons attached to fine chains, fell from the
ceiling, and seemed to float like gay butterflies between the trees
and flowers. They threw their soft, faint, many-colored lights
through these enchanting halls, on each side of which little
grottoes had been formed by twining together myrtles, palms, and
fragrant bushes. Each one of these held a little grass-plot, or
green divan, and these were so arranged that the branches of the
palms were bent down over the seats, and concealed those who rested
there behind a leafy screen.
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