d decide her fate. There was no longer any struggle in her mind.
She could not, for her life, have kept silent now. She walked slowly
beside him to the place where the pots of roses stood ranged on their
frames, filling the air with dense fragrance. Her hands were icy cold
and quick flushes passed through her, while her face reddened and paled
like a horizon smitten by heat-lightning in a sultry night of summer.
She looked at the moist brick pavement at her feet, her eyelids seemed
too heavy to lift, and the long lashes nearly touched her cheeks.

"What sort will you have?" said Farnham, reaching for the gardener's
shears.

"Never mind the roses," she said, in a dry voice which she hardly
recognized as her own. "I have something to say to you."

He turned and looked at her with surprise. She raised her eyes to his
with a great effort, and then, blushing fiery red, she said, in a
clear, low voice, "I love you."

Like many another daughter and son of Eve, she was startled at the
effect of these momentous words upon herself. Of all forms of speech
these three words are the most powerful, the most wonderworking upon
the being who utters them. It was the first time they had ever passed
her lips, and they exalted and inebriated her. She was suddenly set
free from the bashful constraint which had held her, and with a leaping
pulse and free tongue she poured out her heart to the astonished and
scandalized young man.

"Yes, I love you. You think it's horrid that I should say so, don't
you? But I don't care, I love you. I loved you the first time I saw
you, though you made me so angry about my glasses. But you were my
master, and I knew it, and I never put them on again. And I thought of
you day and night, and I longed for the day to come when I might see
you once more, and I was glad when I did not get that place, so that I
could come again and see you and talk with you. I can tell you over
again every word you ever said to me. You were not like other men. You
are the first real man I ever knew. I was silly and wild when I wanted
to be your secretary. Of course, that wouldn't do. If I am not to be
your wife, I must never see you again; you know that, don't you?" and,
carried away by her own reckless words, she laid her hand on his
shoulder. His frown of amazement and displeasure shook her composure
somewhat. She turned pale and trembled, her eyes fell, and it seemed
for an instant as if she would sink to the floor at his fe