I think I have mentioned that she didn't object to honest admiration.
"Is it possible you mean me ?" she said, making me a little courtesy.
"I only think so because most of the Whittingham ladies would not satisfy your fastidious taste." "No lady in the world could satisfy me except one," I answered, thinking she took it a little too lightly.
"Ah! so you say," she said.

"And yet I don't suppose you would do anything for me, Mr.Martin ?" "It would be my greatest happiness," I cried.
She said nothing, but stood there, biting the rose.
"Give it to me," I said; "it shall be my badge of service." "You will serve me, then ?" said she.
"For what reward ?" "Why, the rose!" "I should like the owner too," I ventured to remark.
"The rose is prettier than the owner," she said; "and, at any rate, one thing at a time, Mr.Martin! Do you pay your servants all their wages in advance ?" My practice was so much the contrary that I really couldn't deny the force of her reasoning.

She held out the rose.

I seized it and pressed it close to my lips, thereby squashing it considerably.
"Dear me," said the signorina, "I wonder if I had given you the other thing whether you would have treated it so roughly." "I'll show you in a moment," said I.
"Thank you, no, not just now," she said, showing no alarm, for she knew she was safe with me.

Then she said abruptly: "Are you a Constitutionalist or a Liberal, Mr.Martin ?" I must explain that, in the usual race for the former title, the President's party had been first at the post, and the colonel's gang (as I privately termed it) had to put up with the alternative designation.