The silence grew intolerable. At last it was broken by Gertrude Preston.
"You'll be having splendid roses, Josiah--next year." Those mincing tones, quite cool and untroubled, somehow did wonders. Josiah had always been a noted rose grower and as his sister-in-law pointed elegantly to the rows of young bushes beyond the drawing-room windows something in him began to respond. After all that was his great asset as a human entity: the power to react strongly and readily to the many things in which he was interested.
"Aye," he said, almost gratefully. "Next year they'll be a sight. I've had a double course o' manure put down."
"I hope there'll be some of my favorite Gloire de Dijons," said Gerty with fervor.
"You bet there will be. There's a dozen bushes over yond. By the way, Gert, you're comin' to the show to-morrow week."
Miss Preston, for all her enthusiasm for roses, was not sure that she could get to the show. But Josiah informed her that she would _have_ to come. And he enforced his command by taking a leather case from his breast pocket and producing a small blue card on which was printed:
BLACKHAMPTON AND DISTRICT ROSE GROWERS' ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT, ALDERMAN JOSIAH MUNT J.P.
The twenty-seventh annual Show will be held in the Jubilee Park on Tuesday, August the Fourth. Prizes will be presented at six o'clock to successful competitors by Mrs. Alderman Munt. The Blackhampton Prize Brass Band will be in attendance. Dancing in the evening, weather permitting.
"That'll get you in, Gert." The card was placed in her hand. "Come and stand by Maria and keep her up to it."
Had Maria dared she would have groaned dismally. As it was she had to be content with a slight gesture of dismay.
"You see it'll be a bit o' practice for her. In 1916--the year after next--she'll be the Mayoress."
In the process of time the clock on the drawing-room chimneypiece chimed six and Josiah "stepped round" to Lawyer Mossop's.
That celebrity lived at The Gables, the next house but one along The Rise. Outwardly a more modest dwelling than Strathfieldsaye, it was less modern in style, more reticent, more compact. As Josiah walked up the drive he noted with approval its well kept appearance and its fine display of rhododendrons, phlox, delphiniums, purple irises and many other things that spoke to him. He was a genuine lover of flowers.