"In the meantime," he answered, indicating these, "I know very well a lad that would be blithe to accept a pretty token of any lady's high esteem." "But you have one, already, a very beautiful one." She gave him a genial up-and-down glance from head to foot, half quizzical, but so quick he almost missed it.

And then he was glad he had found the straw hat with the youthful ribbon, and all his other festal vestures.

"And a very becoming flower a white rose is," she continued, "though I am a bold girl to be blarneying with a young gentleman I met no longer ago than last night." "But why shouldn't you blarney with a gentleman, when you began by saving his life ?" "Or, rather, when the gentleman had the politeness to gallop about the county with me tucked under his arm ?" She stood still and laughed softly, but consummately, and her eyes closed tight with the mirth of it.

She had taken one of the roses from her waist, and, as she stood, holding it by the long stem, its petals lightly pressed her lips.
"You may have it--in exchange," she said.

He bent down to her, and she began to fasten the pink rose in place of the white one on his coat.