Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/36

24 refreshing perfume-laden breeze that blew across the garden.

'What a beautiful thing is life!' she murmured, with the joyous accents of early maidenhood, as she tripped lightly out into the garden. 'Everything around me is so fresh and bright. How happy I feel! Only three more hours and I shall see my dear Alec.'

She stooped over one of the flower-beds and made a small nosegay out of the most sweet-smelling flowers.

'There!' she said, as soon as she had finished binding the flowers together. 'That will do for his button-hole when he comes to dinner this evening. Now I must go and have just one look at him to while away the time.'

She returned to the house, dreamily twirling the button-hole in one hand, and entered a small room where there was a strange-looking instrument made of several concave reflectors standing in front of a large screen. She pressed a button