"What's the use of my advising you," he said, not without reason; "you never take my advice when you get it?" And, in truth, I had uniformly taken the opposite line to the one he suggested, choosing a scarlet geranium where he offered a light-coloured verbena, and a rose when he had suggested mignonnette.
"You see," I explained, "mamma won't care for it unless I arrange it all myself. Then Nurse has a lace paper ready which I shall put round it to make it look better. If you like you can hold the flowers," I added, kindly.
But this did not meet my cousin's views.
"I think I'll make a nosegay for uncle," he said, presently; "I suppose I may—eh, Willie?"
I felt sure there could be no objection, and signified my opinion from the very centre of a geranium bed, in which I was making active researches, that would have turned the gardener's hair gray with consternation had he not been safely off the premises at the time, comfortably engaged in discussing his breakfast. And Aleck set to work, and soon gathered a nosegay that almost, if not quite, equalled my own.
Which of our young readers who knows the delight of being let loose on some fine morning in a garden, with full permission to pluck flowers at their own sweet will, knows when to stop? We certainly did not, and should have produced bouquets, at all events, quite unrivalled for size, had it not been for the sounding of the first gong, and the appearance on the lawn of Nurse herself, still so called, although I was no longer her subject, in virtue of her unlimited right of jurisdiction over our clothes.
"A fine sight you're making of yourselves, young gentlemen," she said, beginning with general statements, and then descending into details. "I should like to know what you call that style of hair-dressing which means that every hair stands straight out in any direction but the right one, and no two of them the same. And, Master Willie, if you think you can go down into the dining-room with your tunic in its present condition, not to mention your boots, or Master Gordon's jacket, you're greatly mistaken. And then to look at your collars! No wonder that the bills are as they are, with respect to French polish and blue for clear starching; I know that boys, be they young gentlemen or others, cannot be expected to act like creatures endowed with reason, but still it passes me to understand their ways with respect to clothes well fitted too, and made in the most approved fashion."
"I think we should be black and blue if nurse were not really very good-natured, though she talks like that," I whispered to Aleck; feeling too much the cause she had for strictures upon my personal appearance at the time, to take that opportunity of defending the general character of boyhood. So we surrendered at discretion, and went up-stairs to make ourselves tidy, receiving before the second gong visits of inspection from nurse, who had in the meantime tied up our nosegays for us, and placed the lace paper round the one I had gathered for my mother.
Very important I felt myself as I went down-stairs, for two little packets, folded in white paper, had been entrusted to my care by my parents respectively, containing, as I well knew, their presents for each other, which were to be delivered by me before breakfast.
Directly after prayers the presentation took place. First, the little parcel addressed to my mother, with the message, which I delivered demurely enough, that a gentleman who would not give his name, had left it for Mrs. Grant yesterday, and—but here I broke down, and my appeal, "Oh, papa, I've forgotten what more it was I was to say," produced a peal of laughter, and put an end to our little pretence of mystery.