"
She stopped in an alley of roses and looked me in the face. In the dusk
I could not see her eyes.
"Fine words," she said. "Yet I hear that you have been wrangling over
me with Mr. Charles Grey, and exchanging pistol shots. Is that your
reverence?"
In a sentence I told her the truth. "They forced my back to the wall,"
I said, "and there was no other way. I have never uttered your name to
a living soul."
Was it my fancy that when she spoke again there was a faint accent of
disappointment?
"You are an uncomfortable being, Mr. Garvald. It seems you are
predestined to keep Virginia from sloth. For myself I am for the roses
and the old quiet ways."
She plucked two flowers, one white and one of deepest crimson.
"I pardon you," she said, "and for token I will give you a rose. It is
red, for that is your turbulent colour. The white flower of peace shall
be mine."
I took the gift, and laid it in my bosom.
* * * * *
Two days later, it being a Monday, I dined with his Excellency at the
Governor's house at Middle Plantation. The place had been built new for
my lord Culpepper, since the old mansion at James Town had been burned
in Bacon's rising. The company was mainly of young men, but three
ladies--the mistresses of Arlington and Cobwell Manors, and Elspeth in
a new saffron gown--varied with their laces the rich coats of the men.
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