Flora abruptly left her mother, that she might not hear her remonstrances.
That day a young gentleman came to ask her in marriage. Her mother regarded this proposal as a great honor, but Flora said to this new aspirant:
“Were you to seek me in a coach of silver and offer me a coronet of gold, I would not wed you.”
“Unfortunate girl!” cried Mary Jane, “renounce your pride. Pride leads to destruction.”
Flora laughed.
The third night the watchful mother saw an extraordinary expression on her child’s countenance, and she prayed fervently for her.
In the morning Flora told her of her dream.
“I dreamed,” she said, “that a great lord came to seek me in a coach of gold, gave me a robe of gold, and when I entered the church all there assembled looked only at me.”
The poor widow wept bitterly. The girl left her to escape seeing her distress.
That day in the court-yard of the house there stood three equipages, one of copper, the other of silver, and the third of gold. The first was drawn by two horses, the second by four, the third by eight. From the first two descended pages clothed in red, with green caps; from the third descended a nobleman whose garments were of gold. He asked to marry Flora. She immediately accepted him, and ran to her chamber to decorate herself with the golden robe which he presented to her.