reflected flame from one face to the other, and then, without
another instant's pause, they hurried on.

Across a broad, rose-marbled terrace garlanded with a golden
wealth of orange-trees and odorous oleanders.. ... under a
trellis-work covered with magnolias whose half-shut, ivory-tinted
buds glistened in the moonlight like large suspended pearls, . .
then through a low-roofed stone-corridor, close and dim, lit only
by a few flickering oil-lamps placed at far intervals, . . then on
they went, till at last, ascending three red granite steps on
which were carved some curious hieroglyphs, they plunged into what
seemed to be a vast jungle enclosed in some dense tropical forest.
What a strange, unsightly thicket of rank verdure was here,
thought Theos! ... it was as though Nature, grown tired of floral
beauty, had, in a sudden malevolent mood, purposely torn and
blurred the fair green frondage and twisted every bud awry! Great,
jagged leaves covered with prickles and stained all over with
blotches as of spilt poison, . . thick brown stems glistening with
slimy moisture and coiled up like the sleeping bodies of snakes, . .
masses of purple and blue fungi, . . and blossoms seemingly of the
orchid species, some like fleshy tongues, others like the waxen
yellow fingers of a dead hand, protruded spectrally through the
matted foliage,--while all manner of strange, overpowering odors
increased the swooning oppressiveness of the sultry, languorous
air.

This uncouth botanical garden was apparently roofed in by a lofty
glass dome, decorated with hangings of watery-green silk, but the
grotesque trees and plants grew to so enormous a height that it
was impossible to tell which were the falling draperies and which