There at the other end, near the iron gate communicating with the garden, he actually saw her looking through the bars at the flowers. She had her back to him. She was dressed in a light pink and white striped dress, with a little straw hat trimmed with roses. In her left hand she had a sunshade which matched her dress, and in her right she held some silk gloves.
How these details became engraven in his memory! They were indelibly fixed in his mind!
"You here?" he said, feigning a calmness he was very far from feeling. "Who would have thought that you were the señora whose arrival the servant just announced to me?"
"Did you really not think it was me?" she asked, looking at him fixedly.
"No, no, Señora."
But he coloured even as he said it, and the lady smiled kindly.
"Very well; now show me the Malmaison roses you told me about."
The count opened the gate, and they both went through to the garden, which was very large and somewhat neglected.
Since the countess had almost entirely given up coming to the Grange, the servants hardly touched it. Luis was more interested in making experiments with new modes of agriculture, breeding cattle, and draining ground, than in gardening. But there were many kinds of flowers, put there when his mother used to tend them every afternoon, and there were great bushes which time, combined with the fertile soil, had transformed into thick trees.
Whilst they passed along the walks, which were over-grown with moss, the countess explained in high, clear tones how she came to be there.