"Let's be
thankful
that we have as much as we have.
Kipling - Poems
Now, jist before I took my pail into the passage I though
it would be pre'aps jest as well if I was to come up 'ere an' ask you
what sort of soap you was wishful that I should use on them boards. The
yaller soap, miss----"
There was nothing in the speech to have caused the paroxysm of fury
that drove the red-haired girl into the middle of the room, almost
shouting--"Do you suppose I care what you use? Any kind will do! --any
kind! "
The woman fled, and the red-haired girl looked at her own reflection in
the glass for an instant and covered her face with her hands. It was as
though she had shouted some shameless secret aloud.
CHAPTER VII
Roses red and roses white
Plucked I for my love's delight.
She would none of all my posies,--
Bade me gather her blue roses.
Half the world I wandered through,
Seeking where such flowers grew;
Half the world unto my quest
Answered but with laugh and jest.
It may be beyond the grave
She shall find what she would have.
Mine was but an idle quest,--
Roses white and red are best!
----Blue Roses
Indeed the sea had not changed. Its waters were low on the mud-banks,
and the Marazion Bell-buoy clanked and swung in the tide-way. On the
white beach-sand dried stumps of sea-poppy shivered and chattered.
"I don't see the old breakwater," said Maisie, under her breath.
"Let's be thankful that we have as much as we have. I don't believe
they've mounted a single new gun on the fort since we were here. Come
and look. "
They came to the glacis of Fort Keeling, and sat down in a nook
sheltered from the wind under the tarred throat of a forty-pounder
cannon.
"Now, if Ammoma were only here! " said Maisie.
For a long time both were silent. Then Dick took Maisie's hand and
called her by her name.
She shook her head and looked out to sea.
"Maisie, darling, doesn't it make any difference? "
"No! " between clenched teeth. "I'd--I'd tell you if it did; but it
doesn't. Oh, Dick, please be sensible. "
"Don't you think that it ever will? "
"No, I'm sure it won't.
it would be pre'aps jest as well if I was to come up 'ere an' ask you
what sort of soap you was wishful that I should use on them boards. The
yaller soap, miss----"
There was nothing in the speech to have caused the paroxysm of fury
that drove the red-haired girl into the middle of the room, almost
shouting--"Do you suppose I care what you use? Any kind will do! --any
kind! "
The woman fled, and the red-haired girl looked at her own reflection in
the glass for an instant and covered her face with her hands. It was as
though she had shouted some shameless secret aloud.
CHAPTER VII
Roses red and roses white
Plucked I for my love's delight.
She would none of all my posies,--
Bade me gather her blue roses.
Half the world I wandered through,
Seeking where such flowers grew;
Half the world unto my quest
Answered but with laugh and jest.
It may be beyond the grave
She shall find what she would have.
Mine was but an idle quest,--
Roses white and red are best!
----Blue Roses
Indeed the sea had not changed. Its waters were low on the mud-banks,
and the Marazion Bell-buoy clanked and swung in the tide-way. On the
white beach-sand dried stumps of sea-poppy shivered and chattered.
"I don't see the old breakwater," said Maisie, under her breath.
"Let's be thankful that we have as much as we have. I don't believe
they've mounted a single new gun on the fort since we were here. Come
and look. "
They came to the glacis of Fort Keeling, and sat down in a nook
sheltered from the wind under the tarred throat of a forty-pounder
cannon.
"Now, if Ammoma were only here! " said Maisie.
For a long time both were silent. Then Dick took Maisie's hand and
called her by her name.
She shook her head and looked out to sea.
"Maisie, darling, doesn't it make any difference? "
"No! " between clenched teeth. "I'd--I'd tell you if it did; but it
doesn't. Oh, Dick, please be sensible. "
"Don't you think that it ever will? "
"No, I'm sure it won't.
