Mr. Stone looked up.
“It is not white; it is really pink. The test is simple.” He paused with his eyes fixed on the lilac.
'Ah!' thought Cecilia, 'now, if I can only keep him on natural science he used to be so interesting.'
“All flowers are one!” said Mr. Stone. His voice had changed.
'Oh!' thought Cecilia, 'he is gone!'
“They have but a single soul. In those days men divided, and subdivided them, oblivious of the one pale spirit which underlay those seemingly separate forms.”
Cecilia's glance passed swiftly from the manservant to Stephen.
She saw one of her husband's eyes rise visibly. Stephen did so hate one thing to be confounded with another.
“Oh, come, sir,” she heard him say; “you don't surely tell us that dandelions and roses have the same pale spirit!”
Mr. Stone looked at him wistfully.