II
When Dalton came Becky met him on the front steps of the house.
"Dinner is late," she said, "let's go down into the garden."
The garden at Huntersfield was square with box hedges and peaked up with yew, and there were stained marble statues of Diana and Flora and Ceres, and a little pool with lily pads.
"You are like the pretty little girls in the picture books," said George, as they walked along. "Isn't that a new frock?"
"Yes," said Becky, "it is. Do you like it?"
"You are a rose among the roses," he said. He wondered a bit at its apparent expensiveness. Perhaps, however, Becky was skillful with her needle. Some women were. He did not care greatly for such skill, but he was charmed by the effect.
"You are a rose among the roses," he said again, and broke off a big pink bud from a bush near by.
"Bend your head a little. I want to put it in your hair."