Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/254



I had slept soundly enough during the latter part of the night, I descended to the workshop pale and spiritless; for the morning light had not shown my prospects in any brighter hues. Ialma, who had returned before breakfast, attributing my evident depression to a wrong cause, strove to cheer me by her lively remarks. She even went so far as, after breakfast, to seek out and present to me a sprig of eglantine from the garden.

I was waiting at the door with my curricle, while Utis went up-stairs for the promised letter. The significance of the symbol with which the kind-hearted girl had presented me was encouraging enough. In the flower-language of the period, it stood for "Faint heart never won."

"Reva has told me of your wonderful discoveries of yesterday," said she. "I have strongly encouraged her in the idea of making that strange plant the subject of her lecture. With the aid of the notes you can give her on its history, it ought to be the most interesting lecture of the season. Perhaps, even, it might attain the honor of phonographic repetition elsewhere.