"Here," said Veronica, holding up the rose with the golden verse in the centre. "Shall I read it to you?"
"Yes, do, child."
Veronica read—
"Fortune stands ready, full in sight;
He wins who knows to grasp it right."
"Well, it means this—I should say—fortune is whatever anyone wants the most."
"Fortune is a horse, then," said Dietrich quickly.
Veronica sat thinking. "But, Cousin Judith," she said presently, "how can any one 'grasp fortune'?"
"With your hands," replied Cousin Judith unhesitatingly, "You see, our hands are given us to work with, and if we use them diligently and do our work well, as it ought to be done, then fortune comes to us; so don't you see we 'grasp it' with our hands?"
The verse had now become endued with life, and meant something real and attractive to Veronica. She did not lay her rose out of her hand for a long time, that evening, notwithstanding that Dietrich cast threatening glances upon it, and finally broke out in vexation,
"I will tear off the spring some time, and spoil the thing altogether."