Part 29 (1/2)

”Your ladys.h.i.+p,” said he, ”a man without desires speech with you.”

”Who is he, George?” asked Laura, reluctantly returning to the world and its exigencies.

”He will not say, my lady. He wears no livery, but says that your ladys.h.i.+p knows whence he comes and why. He has a bouquet which was forgotten yesterday evening.”

Laura darted from her chair; then, blus.h.i.+ng deeply, she stopped, and recalled her wandering senses.

”Admit him,” said she, trying to speak carelessly. ”I will inquire what this means.”

”Oh, 'tis a greeting from him,” thought she; but before she had time to surmise any further, the door reopened, and a young man entered the room, holding in his hand a superb bouquet of rare and exquisite flowers.

”Who sent you hither?” asked Laura, with wildly-beating heart.

”A cavalier whose name I do not know,” replied the young man, looking timidly up at the dazzling vision of beauty that stood before him. ”I am first clerk in the largest establishment of the Marche aux Fleurs, and the gentleman who bespoke the bouquet ordered the handsomest flowers in our collection. Your ladys.h.i.+p sees that we have filled the order with the greatest care; for this bouquet contains specimens of our rarest and most expensive flowers. To be sure, the gentleman paid an enormous price for it, saying that nothing we could furnish was too costly for the occasion.”

Laura had listened with wonderful patience to all this idle babble.

”Give me the flowers,” she said. ”They are indeed most beautiful, and I am grateful for them, both to you and the amiable unknown who sends them.”

”He is very small; of sallow complexion, but with large black eyes,”

replied the clerk, while, with an awkward sc.r.a.pe and bow, he presented the bouquet to Laura. ”He was so pleased with our selection, that he kissed one of the flowers.”

Before she had time to control her tongue, Laura had exclaimed, ”Which one?”

”The blue one, your ladys.h.i.+p, called Comelina coelestis.”

Laura looked down at the Comelina coelestis, and fain would she have robbed it of its kiss, but she consoled herself with the thought that she would rifle it of its sweets as soon as the messenger left.

He came closer. ”Your ladys.h.i.+p,” said he, in a very low voice, ”I bear a message, as well as a nosegay. Is there any one about, to overhear me?”

”No one,” replied Laura, breathless and eager.

”Search the bouquet, and under the Comelina your ladys.h.i.+p will find something.”

Laura's rosy fingers were buried in the flowers, and she drew from its fragrant hiding-place a small slip of paper.

”Your ladys.h.i.+p is requested, if you consent, to return, as an answer, the four first words of the note.”

Laura unrolled the paper, and read: ”NOT TO-MORROW, BUT TO-DAY.

Danger threatens, and we must antic.i.p.ate.--E.”

Her face flushed, and her eager eyes were fixed upon that little scroll which, to her and her lover, was of such great import. What could it mean? She read it again and again, until the words danced before her reeling senses.

The clerk came closer yet. ”Your ladys.h.i.+p,” whispered he, ”I must take back my answer. Somebody might come in.”

”The answer?” gasped she, scarcely knowing what he said. ”True, true, there must be an answer.” She stood for a moment irresolute, then a shudder thrilled through her frame, and she felt as if some evil spirit had again come nigh. She raised her eyes to the face of the messenger, as though she would have looked into the penetralia of his thoughts.

”I am to write four words?” asked she, plaintively. ”You know, then, where he lives?”

The clerk replied without the least embarra.s.sment: ”Pardon me, I told your ladys.h.i.+p that I was unacquainted with the cavalier. He awaits my return in the flower-market, and lest I should be too long absent, he hired a fiacre to bring me forth and back.”