“Yes, I will tell you every thing I can; but I think the great matter is being very patient.”
“But, Cousin Leila, I am sure you are not very patient.”
“Yes, I know that; papa often says I am too impetuous.”
“Well,” Matilda observed, “and does not that just mean that you have no patience?”
Leila coloured. “I suppose it does,” she said; “but in some things I have patience, I am always very patient about flowers; to be sure, that is not wonderful, for in the island they were like friends to me. I used to visit them two or three times in the day to see how they were getting on, and to talk to them, as if they were alive, and I often knew the hour of the day by their opening and shutting.”
“And do any of the flowers here open and shut at certain hours?” Matilda inquired.
“Yes, some of them do; but I don’t know the flowers here so well; one kind of evening primrose opens its flowers every day a quarter of an hour before sunset; and the chickweed, which you see me so often gathering for my birds, seems to me to open both leaves and flowers every morning at nine o’clock, and closes its flowers again for some time at twelve, and will not open them at all if it rains; then in the evening it always seems to be making itself comfortable for the night, for the leaves all down the stalk shut up to cover the young shoots, just as if it were putting a great many night-caps on them to keep them warm.”
“How very curious,” Matilda said; “but, Leila, we are forgetting that you were to tell me more about drying flowers. I know I need never try to gain a sovereign like you; but if I could even gain half-a-crown or even a shilling sometimes, it would be such a comfort, for I am always getting into such scrapes about my money for the poor; somehow it always melts away; both you and Selina contrive to save a little every week.”
“But I have more pocket-money than you have.”
“Yes, you have; but still I know I ought to save something, and often I cannot; it is all the fault of those trumpery shops. When I go to Richmond there are so many pretty things which I wish for; and then I am so often hungry and must have some bunns, you know,—how do you manage so well?”