Beadle's Dime Novels No. 14 — page 108: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

106 THE EMERALD NECKLACE. their unaffected friendship. Mrs. Percy looked after them lovingly and admiringly, brushing a tear from her lids and seeming sad for an instant as she turned away. “ Willis says,.‘Give me a seat on a sofa, but if this is not more luxurious than velvet and steel springs, then I have no perception of luxury,” said Rosalie, as she flung herself on to the fine crisp grass and golden moss beneath the maple. “And what a canopy we hayve—better than the crimson silk which used to flaunt over kings and queens.” “More splendid than the embroideries of the old English courts,” responded the city belle, as she leaned against the knarled trunk and looked up into the fluttering, sighing depth of rainbow foliage above her. ; “ How gently it whispers to us. The tree loves you, Rosa- lie, for it has dropped one, two, three of its brightest leaves into your hair, as if to crown you. You told me in your last letter, I believe, that your dress was of white moire antique, and that you had ordered mine to be just like yours. Of ' course you have an elegant vail, and dainty orange flowers and camelias, fashioned by the fingers of some little French girl Now I propose that we weave us wreaths of these - brilliant leaves, and crown ourselves with these instead.” “What would sister Bertha say to that?’ and Rosalie - laughed at the picture her fancy drew of Mrs. Fenelon’s con- sternation to find her care and exquisite coiffure bisa for such a barbarous garland. “They are not appropriate to a wedding, since it is the touch of death that gives them their glow; but if it was not for that I should certainly choose them,” continued Clematis. “ However, I have two or three white roses in full bloom . * now, and we shall not lack for the pure, real flowers.” “Have you no gardens or conservatories near? Bertha will be in despair.” “No, but I have some beautiful plants in my little study. There is a japonica budded, besides the roses, and geraniums in abundance. We shall have flowers.” “T am so glad that I am going to be married here; I shall escape the formalities of a town wedding. I shall realize my new hopes and my new happiness more.” “How wonderful it all is!” murmured her companior. comiclooks.com