LOVE AND THE FLOWERS. . 
23 
I 
i 
Wall-flowers blowing ; and when he 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.” 
T!mvi he thought that as the flowers were such holy 
I 
