Page:Frank Owen - The Wind That Tramps the World (1929).djvu/71

 another long flight of marble stairs to the floor below. Ras Orla gasped at the beauty of it. Everything was of a pungent glowing green, a brilliant green and yet there were no lanterns visible. The floor was lighted by hidden lamps. The soft glow was from reflection. The floor and ceiling were both of green, green that is the life of the floral world, a soft, restful green. For of all colors green is the most comforting.

Throughout the halls there seemed to be a glowing greenish mist, a mist of color, a fog of loveliness. It was like being out in green pastures on a night in summer, a night heavy with dew and the droning of countless crickets.

"This," murmured Yuan Shi Kai, "is the floor of flowers, perhaps the loveliest in the house. Here are countless magnificent blossoms that grow without sunlight. Scientists are wrong who state that flowers get their color and perfume from the sun, rather it is the sun that derives its glory from the flowers. It sucks up beauty even as clouds suck up moisture from the ground. Here I will show you sweet jasmine, oleanders, wistaria, chrysanthemums and lotuses of a beauty so rare that you cannot credit their existence. The greatest thing in all the world is flower-life, greater than the life of birds or beasts or men for flowers have hearts and souls and the power to love. They speak and converse with one another. Their modes of speech are sweet perfumes. Fragrance is the highest form of expression."