"Yes, I know it," said Fleda; "one's eye rests upon the chief objects of attraction, and the others are hardly seen they do not even serve as foils. And they must show beautifully against that dark background of firs and larches!"
"Yes; and the windings of the ground gave me every sort of situation and exposure. I wanted room, too, for the different effects of masses of the same kind growing together, and of fine individuals or groups standing alone, where they could show the full graceful development of their nature."
"What a pleasure! What a beauty it must be!"
"The ground is very happy many varieties of soil and exposure were needed for the plants of different habits, and I found or made them all. The rocky beginnings of the glen even furnished me with south walls for the little tea-roses, and the Macartneys, and musk roses; the banksias I kept nearer home."
"I have seen one banksia the Macartney is a name that tells me nothing."
"They are evergreens with large white flowers very abundant and late in the season, but they need the shelter of a wall with us."
"I should think you would say 'with me,' " said Fleda. "I cannot conceive that the head-quarters of the rose tribe should be anywhere else."
"One of the queens of the tribe is there, in the neighbourhood of the Macartneys the difficult _rosa sulphurea_ it finds itself so well accommodated, that it condescends to play its part to perfection. Do you know that?"
"It is one of the most beautiful of all, though not my favourite it has large double yellow flowers, shaped like the Provence very superb, but as wilful as any queen of them all."
"Not that which shows itself most splendid to the eye, but which offers fairest indications to the fancy."
Fleda looked a little wistfully, for there was a smile rather of the eye than of the lips, which said there was a hidden thought beneath.
"Don't you assign characters to your flowers?" said he, gravely.
"That _rosa sulphurea_ is a haughty high-bred beauty, that disdains even to show herself beautiful, unless she is pleased I love better what comes nearer home to the charities and wants of every-day life."
He had not answered her, Fleda knew; she thought of what he had said to Mrs. Evelyn about liking beauty, but not _beauties_.