n't make a bower of my room, but I am exceedingly fond of growing
flowers, of watching their ways. There is nothing unmanly in that: it
has been the amusement of philosophers, of statesmen in retirement; even
I think of great captains."

"I suppose you know you can sell them--those you don't use," Miss
Bordereau went on. "I daresay they wouldn't give you much for them;
still, you could make a bargain."

"Oh, I have never made a bargain, as you ought to know. My gardener
disposes of them and I ask no questions."

"I would ask a few, I can promise you!" said Miss Bordereau; and it was
the first time I had heard her laugh. I could not get used to the
idea that this vision of pecuniary profit was what drew out the divine
Juliana most.

"Come into the garden yourself and pick them; come as often as you like;
come every day. They are all for you," I pursued, addressing Miss Tita
and carrying off this veracious statement by treating it as an innocent
joke. "I can't imagine why she doesn't come down," I added, for Miss
Bordereau's benefit.

"You must make her come; you must come up and fetch her," said the old
woman, to my stupefaction. "That odd thing you have made in the corner
would be a capital place for her to sit."

The allusion to my arbor was irreverent; it confirmed the impression I
had already received that there was a flicker of impertinence in Miss
Bordereau's talk, a strange mocking lambency which must have been a part
of her adventurous youth and which had outlived passions and faculties.
Nonetheless I asked, "Wouldn't it be possible for you to come down there
yourself? Wouldn't it do you good to sit there in the shade, in the
sweet air?"

"Oh, sir, when I move out of this it won't be to sit in the air, and
I'm afraid that any that may be stirring around me won't be particularly
sweet! It will be a very dark shade indeed. But that won't be just yet,"
Miss Bordereau continued cannily, as if to correct any hopes that this
courageous allusion to the last receptacle of her mortality might lead
me to entertain. "I have sat here many a day and I have had enough of
arbors in my time. But I'm not afraid to wait till I'm called."

Miss Tita had expected some interesting talk, but perhaps she found it
less genial on her aunt's side (considering that I had been sent
for with a civil intention) than she had hoped. As if to give the
conversation a turn that would put our companion in a light more
favorable she said t