"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.