There were fifteen feet of somewhat slippery rock; then a ragged ledge a foot broad, in a crack of which the flower grew; then the dark boiling pool.

Elsley shrugged his shoulders, and said, smiling, as if it were a fine thing to say--"Really, my dear, all men are not knight errants enough to endanger their necks for a bit of weed; and I cannot say that such rough _tours de force_ are at all to my fancy." Lucia turned away: but she was vexed.

Campbell could see that a strange fancy for the plant had seized her.

As she walked from the spot, he could hear her talking about its beauty to Valencia.
Campbell's blood boiled.

To be asked by that woman--by any woman--to get her that flower: and to be afraid! It was bad enough to be ill-tempered; but to be a coward, and to be proud thereof! He yielded to a temptation, which he had much better have left alone, seeing that Lucia had not asked him; swung himself easily enough down the ledge; got the flower, and put it, quietly bowing, into Mrs.Vavasour's hand.
He was frightened when he had done it; for he saw, to his surprise, that she was frightened.