She considered for a moment, then the thought that the fact of her driving about the country without him on the day after her marriage would excite surprise, flashed upon her, and she said:
“I think it would be better if you came.”
He had hoped that she would have said: “I should like you to come,” and his face fell.
“Better?” he said. “Ah, yes; I see. I will order the ponies. Would you like to come round the garden?”
She arose at once with wifely obedience. The garden was flooded with sunlight, the flowers shone like so many gems, the full concert of birds was in progress. These two mortals looked round with aching hearts.
“It is an earthly paradise,” he said; and he sighed.
“Yes,” she assented; and both of them thought of that other paradise into which the eating of the Tree of Knowledge had brought so much misery.
He cut a blush-rose and held it in his hand for a minute or two, then with an affectation of carelessness, he held it out to her. She took it with a little feeling of surprise which she carefully concealed, and put the blossom in the bosom of her dress. He looked at it for a moment, and then turned his eyes away.
The ponies came round with the diminutive groom in attendance, and Trafford was just on the point of dismissing him, when he reflected that perhaps Esmeralda would prefer to have the lad with them, and the boy got up in the rumble behind. She took her seat in the place beside the driver’s, but Trafford shook his head with a smile and gave her the reins.