"Very well, Aunt Meredith, I will," she said, hurrying on, full of happy excitement.
In the softly falling twilight she glided down the path to the old-fashioned garden that lay silent and odorous under the pale light of the moon that hung like a silver crescent in the dark blue sky just above the line of the distant hills.
Lina knelt down with a smile on her lips and gathered a lapful of the great, velvety pansies, on which the dewdrops of evening shone like glittering diamonds.
Her white hands trembled with pleasure; her young heart beat high with love and rapture. She had thrown off the incubus of dread since Ronald's reassuring words last night; yet a sudden, swift memory caused her, as she rose, to glance quickly around her, and then to gather up her flowers and fly along the path back to the house.
As she hurried up to her own room she suddenly remembered Mrs. Meredith's injunction, and ran back to her door, where she tapped lightly.
It was opened by her aunt, who held a small package in her hand, and spoke thickly, with her mouth full of hairpins.
"A black man brought this here, and said it was a bridal-present for you," Lina understood her to say.
She took the package and went on to Mrs. Valchester.
She emptied her lapful of flowers on the toilet-table and held up the package with a smile.