FLORAL CONVERSATLON. 49 
gether with a great number of other guests, who were in¬ 
vited to celebrate the coming of age of our marquis. And 
now comes a chief event in my story. A grand ball was 
to end the festivities, and all the recources of our immense 
establishment were to be taxed to the utmost, as they say 
at the circus, to make the entertainment a success. We 
gardeners were busily engaged, I can assure you, in col¬ 
lecting and preparing all our eligible plants from the 
houses, carrying them to the castle, and arranging them 
in the halls, ball-room, &c. The demand for cut flowers, 
upon the day of the ball, was (so my father, then the head 
gardener, pronounced it) murderous ; flowers for the re¬ 
ception-rooms, flowers for the supper-table, flowers for the 
hair, flowers for the hand, and flowers for the gentlemen’s 
coats. 
As I was at that time head foreman in the plant depart¬ 
ment, the care of the great conservatory was entrusted to 
me during the night of the ball. I was to replace any of 
the low flowering plants, which formed an edging to the 
circular beds, and which might be disarranged by the trail¬ 
ing garments of the ladies ; to supervise the fountains, 
which were at times eccentric in their behaviour ; to keep 
an eye upon the colored lamps, &c. When the guests 
came into the conservatory, I was to retire behind a stage 
