His voice was really concerned, but Vivienne looked at him with a gay laugh and continued to touch with caressing finger tips the beautiful, unearthly flower, which was furnished with colorless bracts in place of green leaves.
“If I were to wear a few of these to the ‘drawing room’ my decoration would be unique, would it not?” she said to Armour.
“Decidedly unique,” he said. “Have you ever heard any poetry about this curious flower?”
“No, never.”
“Then let me repeat to you some exquisite lines by a Canadian poet, impressed by observing that the stalks and blossoms form interrogation points. Remember that this determines the cast of the sonnet,” and he recited with great taste:
“Like Israel’s seer I come from out the earth,
Confronting with the question air and sky,
Why dost thou bring me up? White ghost am I
Of that which was God’s beauty at its birth.
In eld the sun kissed me to ruby red,