Why?
How Gilray came by this chrysanthemum I do not inquire; but whether, in the circumstances, he should not have made a clean breast of it to me is another matter.

Undoubtedly it was an unusual thing to put a man to the trouble of watering a chrysanthemum daily without giving him its history.

My own belief has always been that he got it in exchange for a pair of boots and his old dressing-gown.

He hints that it was a present; but, as one who knows him well, I may say that he is the last person a lady would be likely to give a chrysanthemum to.

Besides, if he was so proud of the plant he should have stayed at home and watered it himself.
[Illustration] He says that I never meant to water it, which is not only a mistake, but unkind.