“Listen!” answered the lady with a slight return of her original sadness.
“Eleven months ago I was left a widow.
“My husband’s estate consisted of a moderate amount of life insurance, a prosperous business, and no debts.
“He was a florist.
“The establishment is located in the heart of a very fashionable district.
“There has scarcely been a function of the élite in this section which my husband has not supplied with floral decorations.
“His taste was exquisite, and his taste was his undoing, for he added refinement to refinement until he began to lose sight of the practical side of existence.
“By degrees he became as attenuated as some of the tendrils he cultivated with such absorption, and as frail as an orchid.
“The intrusion of a pronounced scent was sufficient to induce a serious nervous disturbance, and he could no more endure disproportionate and sharp distinctions of color than a lapidary could tolerate a serious unevenness of facets.
“I was compelled to paper his room with a delicate shade of lavender.