At the farther end of the library there were wide glass doors that opened into a conservatory, where the choicest flowers were kept, and curious ferns. Just beyond was the propagating room and where the tired-out bloomers were put for recuperation.
Marguerite was speechless with admiration. She glanced up with a lovely smile and her dark eyes were lustrous. “Oh,” she murmured, with a long sigh, “I never saw anything so lovely! And that I should have come here to live—”
“Our next door neighbors have quite as much beauty, only it is rather more modern. But their conservatory is magnificent. Such a show of orchids is unusual. But Mount Morris is a rather aristocratic place, that is not wholly given over to fashion, but where people have lovely things to enjoy and are not trying to distance each other unless it is in the matter of choice flowers,” and he laughed. “Mother is so fond of them.”
She thought she could linger there all the remainder of the day, but presently Willard turned and they retraced their steps. Major Crawford stood in the hall.
“Shall we go for our walk, Willard?” he asked. “I think mother would like Marguerite.”
She made a pretty inclination of the head and went up stairs feeling as if she was in fairyland. Mrs. Crawford lay on the lounge with a beautiful Persian wrap thrown over her.
“Will you come and read to me?” she asked in a winsome tone. “I want to hear your voice in poetry; Mrs. Barrington said you were a fine reader. I hope you love verse. The dainty little ones are a great pleasure to me, fugitive verses, as they are called. They have soothed many a painful hour.”
“Are you very tired?” Marguerite bent over and kissed her.
“No, my dear, only this is part of my German doctor’s regimen. He sent a nurse home with me, and last week she went back to assist him with a peculiar case; and I have certain directions to follow, which I obey, implicitly. One is to take a rest after luncheon. Then, I like to be read to. I am something of a spoiled child, you see.”
“I shall be glad to go on with the spoiling,” the girl said in a sweet, earnest tone. “I want to do all I can to make you happy—to make up for the years when you did not have me.”