"There is nothing to be done," he whispered to the servant, "we had better leave them alone. There is nothing we can do."
The room was very still, save only for the laboured breathing of the dying man. The woman's hand still softly stroked his hair; he lay so quietly that she thought he had passed out of consciousness into that strange borderland which is Death's ante-chamber.
The setting sunlight streamed into the room and across his face; the twittering of the birds in the square, the soft rustling of the wind in the tree-tops, were borne in at the half-open window.
Suddenly the dying man opened his eyes in full consciousness.
"I knew you would not leave me," he whispered. "I--said--a woman would stay--with me, it was--you I meant. I--have wasted my life--God forgive me! You have forgiven, my dear--a faithful woman--has forgiven--I think--God--will forgive--too--I--am taking"--his voice almost failed--"my wasted life--with me--to be--to be"--a little whimsical smile stole over his face--"to be--filed--for--reference."
For the last three months cut blossoms of _Lilium Speciosum_ have decorated our table in the centre of London, and have afforded our friends and us real delight, creating subject for discussion at the dinner-table such as we have never known in connection with any other cut flowers.
Perhaps this has arisen from the fact that the floral decorations consisted of flowers of one botanical group only, making a truly consistent nosegay, and creating from its very uniqueness fit subject for special questionings and interest. Of course in the group there were several colours. The _Speciosum Album_ and the varieties of white, the _Speciosum Roseum_ with its varieties of lovely rose-colour, and finally the deep and rich _Speciosum Melpomone_. Nothing in the way of table decoration could be more æsthetic and cheerful-looking than an arrangement of such blossoms, in which we find real white mingled with a lovely purple red, and with nothing but the right gradations of colour between.
In the days of old it was the custom to group flowers of every conceivable colour--reds, blues, pinks, yellow, and others; but now we know better, two colours or three being the most effective scheme for table or bouquet effect, and in all our experience we have never found any general appearance more pleasing than that of our group of _Lilium Speciosum_.