_The Florist_, looking about among the loose papers before him: "Why, I
dton't know. I cot her cart here, somewhere."
_The Lady_, very nervously: "Never mind about the card! I don't wish to
know who she was. I have no right to ask. No! I won't look at it." She
refuses the card, which he has found, and which he offers to her. "I
don't care for her name, but--Where was she sending the flowers?"
_The Florist_, tossing about the sheets of paper on the counter: "She
dtidn't say, but she wrhote it down here, somewhere"--
_The Lady_, shrinking back: "No, no! I don't want to see it! But what
right had she to ask me such a thing as that? It was very bad taste;
very obtuse,--whoever she was. Have you--ah--found it?"
_The Florist_, offering her a paper across the counter: "Yes; here it
iss."
_The Lady_, catching it from him, and then, after a glance at it,
starting back with a shriek: "Ah-h-h! How terrible! But it can't be! Oh,
I don't know what to think--It is the most dreadful thing that
ever--It's impossible!" She glances at the paper again, and breaks into
a hysterical laugh: "Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha! Why, this is the address that I
wrote out for that young gentleman's flowers! You have made a terrible
mistake, Mr. Eichenlaub--you have almost killed me. I thought--I thought
that woman was sending her funeral flowers to--to"--She holds her hand
over her heart, and sinks into the chair beside the counter, where she
lets fall the paper. "You have almost killed me."
_The Florist:_ "I am very sorry. I dtidn't subbose--But the oder attress
must be here. I will fint it"--He begins tossing the papers about again.
_The Lady_, springing to her feet: "No, no! I wouldn't look at it now
for the world! I have had one escape. Send me all jasmine, remember."
_The Florist:_ "Yes, all chasmin." The lady goes slowly and absently
toward the door, where she stops, and then she turns and goes back
slowly, and as if forcing herself.
_The Lady:_ "Mr. Eichenlaub."
_The Florist:_ "Yes, matam."
_The Lady:_ "Have you--plenty--of those white--Bride roses?"
_The Florist:_ "I get all you want of them."
_The Lady:_ "Open, fragile-looking ones, with long, slender stems?"
_The Florist:_ "I get you any kindt you lige!"
_The Lady:_ "Send me Bride roses, then. I don't care! I will not be
frightened out of them! It is too foolish."
_The Florist:_ "All rhighdt. How many you think you want?"
_The Lady:_ "Send all you like! Masses of them! Heaps!"
_The Florist:_ "All rhighdt. And the chasmin?"
_The Lady:_ "No; I don't want it now."
_The Florist:_ "You want the smilax with them, then, I subbose?"
_The Lady:_ "No, I don't want any smilax with them, either. Nothing but
those white Bride roses!" She turns and goes to the door; she calls
back, "Nothing but the roses, remember!"
_The Florist:_ "All rhighdt. I don't forget. No chasmin; no smilax; no
kindt of wine. Only Pridte rhoces."
_The Lady:_ "Only roses."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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