I stammered words that must have revealed my uncertainty, for again she laughed, and then she ordered lights.
Clem came soft-footedly with a branching candelabra, which he placed on the round-topped old table by which she had been sitting.

She moved a step to where the soft lights glowed up into her face, and with mock seriousness stood to be surveyed fairly.
"There, Mr.Blake! You see I confess all my years." And I saw the truth, that she loitered gracefully among the vague and pleasant fifties.

But then she did a thing which would have been injudicious in most women of her years.

Her hand, still holding my roses, went up to her face, and her cheek glowed dusky and pink against the yellow petals.

I saw that she rightly appraised her own daring and felt free to say:-- "You _see_! My confusion was inevitable.