The Spinster Book

y and M

that you are displeased. If you were

es not vanish with the sun. You have unconsciously given me a priceless gift, for wherever I may go, I take you

rld, you have no place. You belong, rather, to those fair lands of fancy which lie just beyo

forget what I am doing, and then I must put you aside. But when the day is done, and the light of it shows only through the pinh

yes would make it noon. However steep and thorny my path, your hand in mine would make it

fragrant, the moonlight more like pearl. You have glorified the commonplace affairs of

fear. Already I have more than I deserve because you are not displeased with me, and since I wrot

ut, Iris, I shall never intrude. It is for you to say whether I shall love

the women in the world, you are the one God meant for

have I forgotten you, so flower-like, so womanly, so dear. So will it always

to tell you all. But one of them you must know-that some day you will let me tell you

ould never shine too fiercely upon you, the stor

u to care? So sure am I of my love that I a

e. Two flowers, if you are willing that I should come sometime, but not now. Then, when your name-

th the letter-sentient, alive, and human-crushed close against her heart. So conscious wa

like a diamond among unnumbered pearls. Drowsy chirps came from the maples above her, where the little birds slept in their swaying nests and dre

y skirts daintily uplifted. The moonlight touched a cobw

thought Iris, "out alon

of rosemary from Mrs. Irving's garden. "She won't care," sa

e trace of it must linger, and Iris did not intend to give too much, so she threw it aside, as it happened, into Lynn's garden. Then she ga

tter. She hesitated a moment in the shadow of the house. The great white moth had

gate, it is all right. If there should be rosemary and mignonette on the gate-post in the morning, someone who was up very early migh

dreams, shining through the mist, transfigured her with silver sheen. The earth was exquisitely

ss, first upon one gate-post and then upon the other. "Such a little bit!" she mused.

cape. The moonlight fairly made it shine. Almost at the steps, Iris was seized with panic. Then her light feet twin

t hastily into the house, "what

n the darkness of the sh