exquisite roses. Every bloom was perfect, and each had been cut at
exactly the right moment.




CHAPTER IV

JANE VOLUNTEERS


The duchess plumped down her basket in the middle of the strawberry
table.

"There, good people!" she said, rather breathlessly. "Help
yourselves, and let me see you all wearing roses to-night. And the
concert-room is to be a bower of roses. We will call it 'LA FETE DES
ROSES.' . . . No, thank you, Ronnie. That tea has been made half an
hour at least, and you ought to love me too well to press it upon
me. Besides, I never take tea. I have a whiskey and soda when I wake
from my nap, and that sustains me until dinner. Oh yes, my dear
Myra, I know I came to your interesting meeting, and signed that
excellent pledge 'POUR ENCOURAGER LES AUTRES'; but I drove straight
to my doctor when I left your house, and he gave me a certificate to
say I MUST take something when I needed it; and I always need it
when I wake from my nap. . . . Really, Dal, it is positively wicked
for any man, off the stage, to look as picturesque as you do, in
that pale violet shirt, and dark violet tie, and those white
flannels. If I were your grandmother I should send you in to take
them off. If you turn the heads of old dowagers such as I am, what