"'But how,' said I, as grave as a judge, 'can a lady of such rank as
yours would seem to be, ply so humble a calling? Have you, like me,
good reasons for employing your fingers so as to keep your brains from
working?'

"'Let us stick to the question of the wall,' said she, with a smile.

"'Why, we have begun at the foundations,' said I. 'Must not I know
which of us ought to yield to the other in behalf of our suffering,
or, if you choose, of our mania?--Oh! what a charming clump of
narcissus! They are as fresh as this spring morning!'

"I assure you, she had made for herself a perfect museum of flowers
and shrubs, which none might see but the sun, and of which the
arrangement had been prompted by the genius of an artist; the most
heartless of landlords must have treated it with respect. The masses
of plants, arranged according to their height, or in single clumps,
were really a joy to the soul. This retired and solitary garden
breathed comforting scents, and suggested none but sweet thoughts and
graceful, nay, voluptuous pictures. On it was set that inscrutable
sign-manual, which our true character stamps on everything, as soon as
nothing compels us to obey the various hypocrisies, necessary as they
are, which Society insists on. I looked alternately at the mass of
narcissus and at the Countess, affecting to be far more in love with
the flowers than with her, to carry out my part.

"'So you are very fond of flowers?' said she.

"'They are,' I replied, 'the only beings that never disappoint our