A ROSE—AND ITS STORY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3102, 27 August 1913, Page 82

A ROSE—AND ITS STORY.

By E. G. Harvey

The girl with the violet eyes leaned over a glass containing two beautiful white moss buds; a shadow flitted across her face as she drew in ’their fragrance and beauty. A little note lay on the table beside her; its childish writing looked sadly shaky. My dear Teacher, —The doctor says that I will never be able to walk again —hard luck, is it not?—so I won’t trouble about putting, my moss roses in the show. I thank you sincerely for all the kindness you have shown mo since my smash-up, and hope that you will wear my flowers at the ball to-night. Dr Fielding will bo there, so I will ask him to take them to you. But I do hope you will wear them. I would hate to cut them and have them wasted. I will ask the doctor how they looked.— Yours gratefully, Leslie Roe.

.And ixe had asked her to give him his answer to-night by wearing a red rose. She glanced half-snyly, half-reverently to where, through the open window, a glorious red bud opened its glowing heart to the warmth and sunshine of the bright morning. She had received Clive Darnley’s request the previous morning, and ever since she had kept saying to herself : “ I will take no notice of his note. I will not be wooed in this out-of-date manner. I will wear no flower at all.” Yet her eyes had quietly sought the red rose tree, and she found herself wondering if its single bud would be ready for her to pick on the night of the ball. Now she was confronted by a difficulty she had not foreseen. She cculd not bear to refuse the request of a dying boy ; yet She thought of writing to Dr Darnley, and telling him about this little Sunday school pupil of hers who had fared so pitiably in trying to do—what he termed his duty. He had rushed in front of a motor car to pick up a little sleeping puppy whose profound slumber was beyond the power of the tooting horn. Quick as Leslie’s movements were they were not quick enough, and the big car and dazed driver were upon him before he could got out of their way. The brown puppy lay in the dust unhurt, but the boy, who acted upon impulse rather than upon reason, lay a mangled wreck. And this little hid, who had always been her little favourite, asked her to wear the roses that ho loved with so unselfish a love. Yet there was Clive! She said to herself, if she was worthy of being loved, she was worthy of being approached in her own home in the old orthodox way. But, as she thought it it came to her mind that Clive Darnley was just tho kind of man to glory in getting things in his own way. Her face flushed warm, as, reading through newly-opened pages, she recalled some of their old conversations. He had come down as Dr Fielding’s locum tenens for a time, and she had found the stranger strangely attractive. But he had carried his secret away with him, and no one dreamed that the grave-faced young doctor had left his whole heart’s love in Maude Derring’s unconscious keeping. In the end she wore the white roses. She could not bear to wound the little lad; but she carried hie letter to the ballroom, and intended to show it to Clive and let him see for himself that she would have worn his rose if she had been able to follow the dictates of her own heart. The violet eyes flowed, the flush spread further over the fair cheeks as she pictured his look when she had confessed her love.

But there was no tale of love to listen to that evening. Maude scarcely left the side of her chaperone, so fearful was she of missing Clive Darnley among the dancers. She did not know in what character she would find him; • but she imagined he would come as a Crusader or mailed knight, and she looked for his tall form among the crowd until Sue felt quite sick at hear'..

It was quite late when Dr Fielding came up to her and begged for a dance. “Leslie’s buds, eh? Poor little lad. How proud he will be when I tell him I saw them, and they looked beautiful against your oink frock.” After the doctor left her Maude felt that she must get away home and tear off her white moss buds, and put on the white Grecian gown, which was the only thing she had that she could wear the red rose with; but, on second thoughts, she felt that she must stick to her colours. She must await developments. The night wore on, but no knight in armour came near the waiting girl. She grew nervous, and tense with a strange

unrest. The flush faded from her cheek, the violets shadowed to purple, the midnight clocks struck, and yet there was no sign of Clive Darnley.

And Maude Derring had come into her woman’s heritage of pain.

It was a blazing day in December, and the dusty and thirsty driver of a very smart motor car was decidedly relieved to see a cool and comfortable-looking farmhouse standing by the roadside. For it was no fun to find oneself bushed in Australia. The driver pulled up at the gato and made his way to where a lad was bending over some rose bushes, snipping off dead leaves. He. accosted the boy with a cheery good-day, and then turned to the flowers, bis face lighted with admiration.

‘ ‘ What lovely roses! Are you the gardener?” “ 1 am, sir. I am trying to keep them at their best for the Warella Show. See, I have made bough shelters for them, so I think they will be all right. The people about her say I’ll be -sure to get a prize with my moss roses. I hope I do, for I brought them from England.” The tired motorist quenched his thirst from a brimming watering can, and casually asked, “Did you ever win a prize there?”

“No ; but I very nearly did. It was this way. About four years ago I got badly smashed up by a motor car. It was a day or two before the flower show at Leldow.”

“ Leldow ! —the indifference sprang from the sleepy-looking eyes. “ Aye, Lei do w, my birthplace. Well, my moss roses were the best in the town, and they had been judged as firsts, but I would not leave them in the hall, and brought them home. Before I took them back again I got under a car. After that, of course, no one bothered any more about it.”

“And that was the end of your flowers?” “ Oh, no. There was a masked and fancy-dress ball at the Town Hall the second night of the show, and I sent my moss buds to Miss Maude Derring, my Sunday School teacher.” , “How did she get them?” The man’s voice was hard and vibrating. “Dr Fielding called, and left the buds at her house, and he helped me write to her, and I thought I was dying, and told her I would love her to wear them for my sake. It was awful cheeky of mo, but Miss Derring would do anything for one in trouble. It was she who helped my mother come out to Uncle James. W o both live here.” And the boy paused for breath.

But the man in the motor was not letting him get a fresh start. “Miss Derring must have been very fond of moss buds, or very fond of you, youngster.”

“ She liked both; but she liked red ones best.”

‘How do you know?”

“Because, when she came to see me two days later, and I thanked her for wearing my flowers, she said, very quiet like, ‘ They were very beautiful; but if I had known that Dr Fielding was going to get you round so quickly I am afraid that I would have put them in a vase and worn a lovely reel bud from my own garden. I wanted particularly to wear red that night. I had a lovely white dress that it would have shown, out on ’ ”

There came a sharp ejaculation from the man. “Do you ever hear from Leldow now? Do you ever hear from Miss Derring?” “Yes, every month she writes to me. I had a letter from her yesterday She still lives with her brother; but Mr Ralph is going to be married, so I don’t know what she will do now.”

The face of the motor driver was aglow with interest. “I say, my boy, have you any message for Miss Maude—any mossbuds to send to her, —for I am going straight home to Leldow.”

Leslie looked his astonishment. “Don’t you remember Dr Clive Darnley ?” “You Dr Darnley? I remember you well. And you will see Miss Derring? Tell her I never cease to think of her, and say lam happy and contented. Take her these,” and he snipped his best buds off. “Never mind Warella Show when I have a chance to send a token to the kindest young lady in England!” He thrust the flowers into the doctor’s hands.

“Good-bye, Leslie. I shall come and see you when I come out again.” And ho was away before the wonderstruck lad recovered from his surprise.

“Why did you not come and speak to me, Clive? Why not give me a chance to explain?’’ “Because it seemed eo ridiculously plain. I had met Guy Fielding going to your house carrying a spray of flowers. The paper was broken at one corner, and I noticed that it was mossbude he was carrying. Then, when I did get to the ball—l "was, unfortunately, very late —you were dancing with Guy, and were wearing white roses.” “I waited until after ten o clock before I danced at all.” “And T had had a very bay case, and had no time to get into my Robespierre robes; I just had time to put on a big cloak and black domino, and had to tear for the second train then. It was Fate’s game all right, for while I was looking for you in pure white, with perhaps a touch of red at your breast, you would be expecting to see me in the smart tobes of the historical advocate.” “But we won’t waste time in dead-and-gone work. We are alive, and ready to take all the goods the gods send us. 1 am longing for you, dear. I want you at once, for I love you very dearly, and will make you the happiest girl in Australia You are not afraid to face the big continent with me, are you?” ‘‘No, dear, I am not.” “Then, beloved, we will seal our compact in the time-honoured way,” and the doctor’s arms were around her before tho

girl realised tile turn that ha-d come to her on the wheels of Fate.

Clive Darnley and his bride met with a most loyal and loving welcome fatnn little Leslie. The doctor took him away to live with him, and where, in his own special hospital and under his own special treatment of spinal cases, he put new life into the crippled lad. Leslie’s recovery a name for Dr Da-rnley when, after a very especial operation, he arose from his bed with straightened limbs, and his young blood bubbling swift and strong in his veins.

Leslie Roe became chauffeur to the young specialist, and fives unbounded gratitude to the doctor and his violet-eyed wife.

The paths that had diverged so widely merge into a fair roadway.