She turned them round and gazed at them with her face slightly averted.
“Yes, they are, and yet I hate to see them tied that way; I ordered them sent to you loose. I always like to think of you as arranging roses.”
“Yes, I love to arrange them myself,” she said.
“The fact is, as beautiful as those are, I believe I like better the old-fashioned roses right out of the dew. I suppose it is old association. But I know an old garden up at an old country-place, where my mother used to live as a girl. It used to be filled up with roses, and I always think of the roses there as sweeter than any others in the world.”
“Yes, I like the old-fashioned roses best too,” she said, with that similarity of taste which always pleased him.
“The next time I come to see you I am going to bring you some of those roses,” he said. “My mother used to tell me of my father going out and getting them for her, and I would like you to have some of them.”
“Oh! thank you. How far is it from your home?”
“Fifteen or twenty miles.”
“But you cannot get them there.”
“Oh! yes, I can; the fact is, I own the place.” She looked interested. “Oh! it is not worth anything as land,” he said, “but I love the association. My mother was brought up there, and I keep up the garden just as it was. You shall have the roses. Some day I want to see you among them.” Just then there was a step behind him. She rose.