"Yes, vegetables! You don't seem to despise them at dinner."
"No, but vegetables! Anyone can buy vegetables."
"Anyone can buy flowers, I suppose, if they have the money to spend."
"They can't buy the look of flowers in the garden," I argued; "that is what one wants; not a few cut things on the table."
"Well, I spend," began his Reverence, and then paused, and looked through a little drawer of his table that contained account-books.
An idea struck me. I waited eagerly for his next words.
"Let me see," continued his Reverence, running his eye down long rows of figures. "Ah! here is one of last year's bills for seeds, etc. Just on ten pounds, you see, and half of that certainly was for the flower garden. There were new rose trees."
"They are mostly dead. Griggs said it was the frost," I interpolated.
"And some azaleas, I remember."
"They don't flower."