The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1912-08-29
WEEKLY SHORT STORY
THE LAST ROSE.
BY Temple Bailey.


Miss Persis Monroe walked in her
garden.
Winters coming, Peter" she said
to the big yellow cat who followed
her.
Peter scurried down Che path after
the rustling, romplng leaves. He rath.
er liked the GOODNESS of the northwest
wind. l made him feel young again
and frisky.
But the wind made Miss Persis
SILVER. In summer, with her roses
, abouS her, in her soft white dresses,
with rare lace scarf picked up by
der father on one of his voyages
Graped about her head, she felt young
aud looked young. But in the winter
her growing poverty compelled her
TO buy serviceable gowns. So she
usually wore black. Only in summer
could she set of her beauty by dainti-
ness, and then the price was an ex-
pendtture of time and strength, for
she did her own washing.
In the days of her girlhood Miss
Persis had never roughened her hands
by labor. A prosperous sea captain
can keep his family in a certain lux
ury. But with the death of her father
and mother the last remnant of the
family fortunes disappeared. After
thaS Miss Persis and an invalid sister
supplemented a most meager income
by the summer sale of roses.
The guests from the summer hotel
bought them. There was usually a
thriving trade-and even as she spoke
of the winters nearness Miss Persis
had comfortable sense of the little
nest egg in the bank which would
keep them from cold and hunger.
But is very small, Peter" said
Miss Persis, and 1 don't dare to get
a new dress"
Miss PersiS had dreamed of a new
dress. She had never spoken of her
ambition to her sister, for Lavinia
would have seen a certain unworthy
vanity in the desire for prettiness, but
Miss Persis craved a gown Of subdued
gray-her ambition had never even
compassed q touch of pink a the
throat.
''Yet, I'm only forty, Peter" said
Miss Persis as she bent down 20 smell
the last pink rose left in the garden.
And / haven't had a becoming gown
in winter since l was a girl. wish /
could have jus5 one"
Miss Persis did not believe in fair
les, but as she thought of it afterward
she wondered if some goblin grand
mother had noS waved her wand at
that moment to make her wish come
true. y
But there was no evidence of magic
in the personality of the man who
spoke to Miss Persis from the other
side of the fence.
II understand, madam, that you sell
roses"
Miss Persis looked up. An erect and
military looking gentleman was wait
ing for her answer.
Earlier in the season" said Miss
Persis, I'VE had many roses, but now
that the winter is coming We have
only one-I'm sorry"
AS she stood there, tall and grace
full, beside the bush, with its one faint
pink blossom, the man outside felt his
heart singing, and the words formed
themselves, thus:
Ills the last rose OF summer,
Left blooming alone"
81 should like to buy that one" he
said, there's a child i'll at the hotel.
/ want to take her a flower"
Then you shall not buy it," said
Miss Persis eagerly. Let ME give it
to you-for the child"
He felt chat TO insist would be to
hurt her. He took the flower from
her, and as he thanked her, gazed with
pleasure on her eager, upturned face,
with its delicate flush against a clear
Wilderness of a skin that showed no
wrinkle.
''In the winter whaS do you do" he
asked, without your garden?'
Il dread winter" said Miss Persis,
IL feel shut in-but l plane flowers in
the window boxes, and by Christmas l
have hyacinths, and after thae violets,
and they keep me busy"
And you sell your fiowers?"
There isn't much sale for them,
saiw Miss Persis. The guests are
gone from the hotel. But l have the
pleasure of giving them to the village
people. To the girls when they
graduate, and the brides when they
marry, and to the sick, and now and
then-to the dead"
He was a man of the world, but
something in the soft voice thrilled
him. Women did not talk tha5 way
in the city, but they had talked chat
way in his dreams.
Gould you"-he spoke with hesita-
tion-"have some hyacinths ready for
Christmas? l should like to buy
them?'
Her radiant glance repaid him.
Really" she asked.
yes" He wondered if he should
have to wait so long 20 see her again.
He felt that he would not be per-
mitted to pass certain bounds.
That night he asked questions at the
hotel. The next morning he presented
himself at Miss Persists door. 4 have
found that my father knew your faith
err" he said. Their vessels sailed
from the same harbor. i wonder if
may come in and talk about it a little"
There were treasures in the old
house of which Miss Persis did not
know the value, and had she known
it she would not have sold the fan
which her father had brought from
China, the little carved figures which