'
Kitty danced for a little time, but was too much agitated to enjoy
the valse, in spite of the admirable partner M. Vandeloup made. She
was determined to find out the truth, so stopped abruptly, and
insisted on Vandeloup taking her to the conservatory.
'What for?' he asked, as they threaded their way through the crowded
room. 'Is it important?'
'Very,' she replied, looking straight at him; 'it is essential to
our comedy.'
M. Vandeloup shrugged his shoulders.
'My faith!' he murmured, as they entered the fernery; 'this comedy
is becoming monotonous.'
CHAPTER X
IN THE FERNERY
The fernery was a huge glass building on one side of the ballroom,
filled with Australian and New Zealand ferns, and having a large
fountain in the centre sending up a sparkling jet of water, which
fell into the shallow stone basin filled with water lilies and their
pure white flowers. At the end was a mimic representation of a
mountain torrent, with real water tumbling down real rocks, and here
and there in the crannies and crevices grew delicate little ferns,
while overhead towered the great fronds of the tree ferns. The roof
was a dense mass of greenery, and wire baskets filled with sinuous
creepers hung down, with their contents straggling over. Electric
lights in green globes were skilfully hidden all round, and a faint
aquamarine twilight permeated the whole place, and made it look like
a mermaid's grotto in the depths of the sea.
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