"Can your city greenhouses surpass them?" she asked.

He sat on a log to examine the blooms.

"They are superb!" he said. "I never saw such length of stem or such
rank leaves, while the flowers are the deepest blue, the truest violet
I ever saw growing wild. They are coloured exactly like the eyes of the
girl I am going to marry."

Elnora handed him several others to add to those he held. "She must have
wonderful eyes," she commented.

"No other blue eyes are quite so beautiful," he said. "In fact, she is
altogether lovely."

"Is it customary for a man to think the girl he is going to marry
lovely? I wonder if I should find her so."

"You would," said Philip. "No one ever fails to. She is tall as you,
very slender, but perfectly rounded; you know about her eyes; her hair
is black and wavy--while her complexion is clear and flushed with red."

"Why, she must be the most beautiful girl in the whole world!" she
cried.

"No, indeed!" he said. "She is not a particle better looking in her way
than you are in yours. She is a type of dark beauty, but you are equally
as perfect. She is unusual in her combination of black hair and violet
eyes, although every one thinks them black at a little distance. You