SELECTION. l6l 



Pillar Roses), and will enable the amateur to dispose the 

 branches at regular intervals, so that they will finally form 

 a fair dome of Roses — such a floral fountain as may have 

 played in the fancy of our Laureate, when he wrote 



*' The white Rose weeps, she is late." 



And now we have passed through the Rose-clad walls — 

 through the Rose-wreathed colonnades and courts of the 

 outer palace — into the anteroom of that presence-chamber 

 where we shall see, in brilliant assemblage, the beauty and 

 the chivalry of the Queen of Flowers. We will pause a 

 while that we may arrange simultaneously our nerves and 

 our court costume, the former troubled by a horrible sus- 

 picion that every eye is gazing derisively upon our black- 

 silk legs ; and then let us enter, to make, if that abominable 

 sword permit, our loyal and devout obeisance. 



