LOVE AND THE FLOWERS. 23 
Wall-flowers blowing' ; and when lie inquired why 
they still haunted such a scene of decay and desola¬ 
tion, they answered, that they had outlived all that 
was once lovely and happy; and although Beauty no 
longer reigned there, and the banquet-hall was desert¬ 
ed, and the voice of the lute no longer sounded in the 
lady’s bower — they were still faithful amid all the 
storms of adversity. 
Long did Love brood over the new language which 
he had discovered, and many a day did he sit ponder¬ 
ing to himself, as if hesitating whether or not he should 
trust Woman with the secret. “ She is already armed 
with beauty,” reasoned Love, as he sat with his elbow 
pillowed on a bed of flowers ; “ there is a language in 
her eyes, and a sweet music in her voice, and shall I 
now teach her to converse through flowers—to give a 
tongue to the rose, and a voice to the lily, and hang 
upon the honeysuckle words of love, and turn every 
blossom she gathers into the language of affection ? 
No ; I will again fly abroad, and dropping a bud here 
and a bell there, see to what purpose she turneth these 
beautiful secrets. I will but at first teach her a few 
letters in this new Alphabet of Love.” 
Then he thought that as the flowers were such holy 
