"It is your home, and I am to stay with you?" I said, a little confused.
"No, it is your home, and I am to stay with you till my brother comes."
"Always, dear brother, always!" I cried, clinging to his arm.
He smiled and said, "We will enjoy the present; we never will be far apart again. But come, I am eager to show you all."
Turning to the left, he led me, still through the beautiful marble columns that everywhere seemed substituted for doorways, into a large, oblong room, upon whose threshold I stopped in wondering delight. The entire walls and floor of the room were still of that exquisite light gray marble, polished to the greatest luster; but over walls and floors were strewn exquisite, long-stemmed roses, of every variety and color, from the deepest crimson to the most delicate shades of pink and yellow.
"Come inside," said my brother.
"I do not wish to crush those perfect flowers," I answered.
"Well, then, suppose we gather some of them."
I stooped to take one from the floor close to my feet, when lo! I found it was imbedded in the marble. I tried another with the same astonishing result, then turning to my brother, I said:
"What does it mean? You surely do not tell me that none of these are natural flowers?"