Feeling anxious to please Mrs. Lansing, my first impulse was to send the flowers back, but upon second thoughts, I concluded that this would not come under the head of “attentions,” and so all the morning they stood in the tiny vase, which Halbert brought to hold them, all except one rose-bud which Jessie selected from the group, and twined among my curls. This at the dinner-table attracted the watchful eye of my employer, who, without any apparent motive, casually remarked upon its beauty, saying, “It looked like a species of _rose_ which grew in her brother’s garden,” and adding that “she did not know as there were any of that kind on her grounds.” I blushed crimson, while Jessie answered, “It didn’t grow here. _Uncle Dick_ brought it to her with a heap more.” Casting upon me a frowning glance, Mrs. Lansing said, “Seems to me you have forgotten the conditions on which I kept you.” This was the first I had heard of _conditions_; but so anxious was I to retain my situation, that I resolved to please her at all hazards, and stammering out that “Jessie put it in my hair,” I tore it from among my curls and threw it upon the floor. Then, as soon as dinner was over, I went up to the schoolroom, and removing the bouquet from the vase, threw that too, from the window. Very wonderingly, little Jessie looked up in my face, asking “why I did it,” and if “I didn’t love flowers.” “Very, very much,” I answered; “but your mother don’t want me to keep them.” That afternoon he came to visit us “officially,” he said, and when I saw his winning manner, and how much of sunshine he brought with him, I did not wonder that one as susceptible as Miss Rawson was represented to be, should have fallen in love with him. But with _me_ it was different. _I_ had been warned against his pleasant, affectionate ways; and so, when in conversing with me and Lina, he threw his arm around her waist and laid his hand carelessly upon my shoulder, I moved quickly away, while I was sensible of a deepening flush upon my face. He seemed puzzled, and for an instant looked inquiringly at me, as if to ask a reason for my conduct. He was showing Lina a book of engravings, and after a while called me to look at a picture which he thought was particularly fine. I complied with his request, and wishing to see more, took a seat at his side, when either purposely, or from force of habit, he threw his arm across the back of my chair. The action reminded me of Dr. Clayton, and I was feeling somewhat annoyed, when looking up, I met the haughty eyes of Mrs. Lansing, who was passing the door, and had stopped to look in. This of course embarrassed me, and hardly knowing what I did, I said rather angrily, “You will oblige me, Mr. Delafield, by taking your arm from my chair. It does not look well.”