"If you will promise me not to be angry," he whispered.
She drew back from him and laughed.
"How can I be angry?" she asked. "I beg of you to tell me what you have done to win a flower."
His eyes seemed to light his face with love and passion.
"I will tell you what I have done," he said. "In one minute I have laid at your feet, in silence, the homage that another could not have won in a whole year. Now will you give me a flower?"
He took one of the scarlet blossoms, and in doing so his fingers touched hers.
"I shall never part with it," he said. Then he heard the sound of the opening of the conservatory door, and he knew that Lady Estelle was coming. "Shall you be very angry with me," he asked, in a quiet whisper, "if you see me near your home."
"No," she replied.
Then he arose and went over to the other end of the conservatory, so that when Lady Estelle entered, she could not have any idea that they had exchanged one word.
Still she looked surprised, and not very well pleased at finding him there. He came forward quickly, never even looking at Doris.