Part 1 (2/2)

”You are smoking?” she inquired. That habitual smile was on her lips, but her eyes were cold.

”Just--just a dry smoke,”--with a note of injured innocence.

”Your cigar is in your mouth,” she persisted, ”and yet you're not smoking.”

At that, the florist took a forward step. ”And my teeth are in my mouth,” he answered boldly, ”but I'm not eating.”

Another woman might have shrunk from the impudence of his retort, or replied angrily. Mrs. Milo only advanced, with slow elegance, prepared again to put him on the defensive. ”Why do I find you in this room?” she demanded.

”I'm just pa.s.sing through--to the lawn.”

”Do not pa.s.s through again.”

”Well, I'd like to know about that,” returned the florist, argumentatively. ”When I mentioned pa.s.sing through the Church, why, the Rector, he says to me----”

Mrs. Milo lifted a white hand to check him. ”Never mind what Mr. Farvel said,” she admonished sharply; then, with quick gentleness, ”You know that he has lived here only little more than a year.”

”Oh, I know.”

”And I have lived here fifteen years.”

”True,” a.s.sented the florist. ”But I was talking with Miss Susan about pa.s.sing through the Church, and Miss Susan----”

The blue eyes flashed. And once more Mrs. Milo advanced. ”Never mind what my daughter told you,” she commanded, but without raising her voice.

”I am compelled to make this Rectory my home because Miss Milo does the secretarial work of the parish. And what kind of a home should I have if I allowed the place to be in continual disorder?”

There was a pause, the two facing each other. Then the look of the florist fell. ”I'll go in by way of the Church, madam,” he announced.

And turned away with a stiff bow.

”One moment.” The order was curt; but as he brought up, and turned about once more, Mrs. Milo spoke almost confidentially. ”As you very well know,” she reminded, her face slightly averted, ”there is a third entrance to the Close.”

The florist saw his opportunity. ”Oh, yes,” he declared; ”--the little white door where the ladies come of a night to leave their orphans.”

That brought Mrs. Milo about. And the color deepened in her cheeks. It was the red, not only of anger, but of modesty. ”The women who desert their infants in that basket,” she replied (again that sorrowful intonation), ”are not ladies.”

The florist was highly pleased with results. ”That may be so,” he went on, with renewed boldness; ”but for my ladders, and my plants, the little white door is too small, and so----” He stopped short. His jaw dropped.

His eyes widened, and fixed themselves in undisguised admiration upon a young woman who had entered the room behind Mrs. Milo--a lankish, but graceful young woman, radiant in a gown of s.h.i.+mmering satin, her fair hair haloed by carefully carried lengths of misty tulle. ”And so,”

resumed the florist, absent-mindedly, ”and so--and so----”

Mrs. Milo moved across the carpet to a sofa, adjusted a velvet cus.h.i.+on, and seated herself. ”Go and do your work,” she said sharply. ”It must be finished this afternoon. And remember: I don't want to see you in this room again.”

”Very well, madam.” With a smile and a bow, neither of which was intended for Mrs. Milo, the florist recovered his self-possession, threw wide his hands in a gesture that was an eloquent tribute to the s.h.i.+ning apparition at the farther end of the room, and backed out.

”Ha-a-a!” sighed Mrs. Milo--with gratification in her triumph over the decorator, and with a sense of comfort in that cus.h.i.+oned corner of her favorite sofa. She settled her slender shoulders against the velvet.

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