"Goodness only knows what I'd have done if it hadn't been for her," he
laughed. "I wanted to plant American Beauty roses and maiden-hair fern
all over the place. I even think I had some notion of growing
four-dollar orchids on the pear trees. The idea of putting in things
that would really grow was entirely hers."
"I like the idea of planting the old-fashioned, hardy things," said the
Doctor. "They're the best, after all. Asters and foxgloves and deutzia
and snowballs and all the rest of them."
"And phlox," said Wade. "They told us we were planting too late, but the
phlox has buds on it already. Come and see it."
So they trooped down the new gray steps and strolled around the garden,
Wade exhibiting proudly and miscalling everything, and Miss Mullett
gently correcting him.
Their travels took them around the house and finally to the gate in the
hedge, over the arch of which Miss Mullett was coaxing climbing roses.
When they turned back Eve and the Doctor walked ahead.
"Eve told me once such a quaint thing about that gate," said Miss
Mullett. "It seems that when she was a little girl and used to play in
the garden over there, she imagined all sorts of queer things, as
children will. And one of them was that some day a beautiful prince
would come through the gate in the hedge and fall on his knee and ask
her to marry him. Such a quaint idea for a child to have, wasn't it?"
"Yes," answered Wade thoughtfully. There was silence for a moment, and
then he glanced down and met Miss Mullett's gaze. He laughed ruefully.
"Do you think I look much like a prince?" he asked.
"Do looks matter," she said, gently, "if you _are_ the prince?"
"Perhaps not, but--I'm afraid I'm not."
Thereupon Miss Mullett did a most unmaidenly thing. She found Wade's
hand and pressed it with her cool, slim fingers.
"If I were a prince," she replied, "I'd be afraid of nothing."
There was just time to return the pressure of her hand and give a
grateful look into the kindly face, and then they were back with the
others on the porch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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