"I should think it would have been much better," Mr. Southwode said, forbidding the smile that was inclined to come. For Rotha's manner did not make her words less flattering.
"Do you? Do you not know me better than that, Mr. Digby?" said Rotha, feeling a little injured.
"I suppose I do! You were always an unreasonable child. But I can understand how you should regret Mrs. Mowbray."
"Now?" said Rotha. "I do not regret anything now. I am too happy to tell how happy I am."
"I remember, you are gifted with a great capacity for happiness," Mr.
Southwode said, letting the smile come now.
"It is a good thing," said Rotha. "Sometimes, even this summer, I could forget my troubles in my flower beds. Did you notice in what nice order they were, and how many flowers still?"
"I am afraid I did not specially notice."
"Awhile ago they were full of bloom, and lovely. And when I took them in hand they were a wilderness. Nobody had touched them for ever so long. I had a job of it. But it paid."
"What else have you done this summer?"
"Nothing else, except study my Bible. It was all the study I had."