Constance gave her a significant glance, a strong contrast to the earnest simplicity of Fleda's face, and presently inquired if she ever wrote poetry.
"Shall I have the pleasure some day of discovering your uncommon signature in the secular corner of some religious newspaper?"
"I hope not," said Fleda quietly.
Joe Manton just then brought in a bouquet for Miss Evelyn, a very common enlivener of the breakfast-table, all the more when, as in the present case, the sisters could not divine where it came from. It moved Fleda's wonder to see how very little the flowers were valued for their own sake; the probable cost, the probable giver, the probable éclat, were points enthusiastically discussed and thoroughly appreciated; but the sweet messengers themselves were carelessly set by for other eyes and seemed to have no attraction for those they were destined to. Fleda enjoyed them at a distance and could not help thinking that "Heaven sends almonds to those that have no teeth."
"This Camellia will just do for my hair to-morrow night!" said Florence;--"just what I want with my white muslin."
"I think I will go with you to-morrow, Florence," said Fleda;--"Mrs. Decatur has asked me so often."
"Well, my dear, I shall be made happy by your company," said Florence abstractedly, examining her bouquet,--"I am afraid it hasn't stem enough, Constance!--never mind--I'll fix it--where is the end of this myrtle?--I shall be very glad, of course, Fleda my dear, but--" picking her bouquet to pieces,--"I think it right to tell you, privately, I am afraid you will find it very stupid--"
"O I dare say she will not," said Mrs. Evelyn,--"she can go and try at any rate--she would find it very stupid with me here alone and Constance at the concert--I dare say she will find some there whom she knows."
"But the thing is, mamma, you see, at these conversaziones they never talk anything but French and German--I don't know--of course I should be delighted to have Fleda with me, and I have no doubt Mrs. Decatur would be very glad to have her--but I am afraid she won't enjoy herself."
"I do not want to go where I shall not enjoy myself," said Fleda quietly;--"that is certain."