“Oh, Fred, what is the use of promising? You will change your mind as soon as you see a new face.”
“Promise! I will not let go your hand until you do!”
“The tea-bell is about to ring. I heard Angie take it from the sideboard.”
“Then promise!”
“I will,” the hand was pressed, then released, and Hilda gathered up the bouquets.
“Here is yours, Cousin Fred,” she said, holding the boutonniere toward him.
“I had forgotten it,” he said, candidly.
“You will notice that I have arranged them according to their language. See, here is a sprig of arbor-vitæ:
“‘The true and only friend is he,
Who, like the arbor-vitæ tree,
Will bear our image in his heart.’
“With it I have placed
“‘The generous geranium
With a leaf for all who come.’
“Then a spray of myrtle:
“‘Myrtle placed on breast or brow,
Lively hope and friendship vow.’
“Then two pansies:
“‘Pray you love, remember.
There’s pansies, that’s for thought.’”
Fred placed the boutonniere without comment in the button-hole of his coat, and they went up the broad path to the house.