"It is a pleasure to meet a celebrity like you, Miss Knight," he
murmured. "All New York is at your feet, I understand. I'm deeply
indebted to Hammon. Blessings on such a host!"

"Oh, don't be hasty. You may dislike me furiously before the
evening is over. He does things in a magnificent way, doesn't he?
I'm sure this is going to be a splendid party."

As they entered the banquet-hall she gave a little cry of
pleasure, for it was evident that Hammon, noted as he was for a
lavish expenditure, had outdone himself this time. The whole room
had been transformed into a bower of roses, great, climbing
bushes, heavy with blooms; masses of cool, green ivy hid the walls
from floor to ceiling and were supported upon cunningly wrought
trellises through which hidden lights glowed softly. In certain
nooks gleamed marble statuettes so placed as to heighten the
effect of space and to carry out the idea of a Roman garden.

The table, a horseshoe of silver and white, of glittering plate
and sparkling cut-glass, faced a rustic stage which occupied one
end of the room; occupying the inner arc of the half-circle was a
wide but shallow stone fountain, upon the surface of which floated
large-leaved Egyptian pond-lilies. Fat-bellied goldfish with filmy
fins, and tails like iridescent wedding trains, propelled
themselves indolently about. Two dimpled cupids strained at a
marble cornucopia, out of which trickled a stream of water, its
whisper drowned now by the noisy admiration of the guests.

But the surprising feature of the decorating scheme was not