“No lady in the world could satisfy me except one,” I answered, thinking she took it a little too lightly.
“Ah! so you say,” she said. “And yet I don’t suppose you would do anything for me, Mr. Martin?”
“It would be my greatest happiness,” I cried.
She said nothing, but stood there, biting the rose.
“Give it to me,” I said; “it shall be my badge of service.”
“You will serve me, then?” said she.
“For what reward?”
“Why, the rose!”
“I should like the owner too,” I ventured to remark.
“The rose is prettier than the owner,” she said; “and, at any rate, one thing at a time, Mr. Martin! Do you pay your servants all their wages in advance?”