E. L. White

“ Laughing with delight, Fay slipped into Nelson's arms.
"Sure?"
"Certain sure. We'll have to get married."
"Um! You haven't ten thousand a year."
"No, but I'm handsome."
In the middle of a kiss, Nelson stopped and held her away at arm's length.
"Woman, tell me the truth, eye to eye and heart to heart!"
"I will. When you look at me like that, I feel like glass. Edgar, I swear I have never kissed a man before!"
"Good! But that's nothing. Fay—Fay darling, what have you done with my pink tulips?" ”

“ In every respect she corresponded to Nelson's description of his fairy.
Blue eyes, pink cheeks—one slightly pinker than the other, for the widow was careless—and a frock which might have been cut out of a sunrise, double width and on the cross.
"What vegetables for to-day, madam? Seakale or purple sprouting broccoli?"
"Again? Why is there never any choice?"
"Season." Fay played her useful trump. "I can't give you peas in April."
Each looked warily at the other. Nina Lemon knew little about a garden, and Fay only a little more. ”

“ I only wish I were a pink fairy, so that I could grant him his wish."
To his annoyance, Nelson reddened under her gaze.
"Perhaps I can guess. If I can help it on with a word, trust me!"
He squeezed her hand sheepishly. In spite of the pink tulips, her heart felt suddenly empty. Love was on all sides of her, but it passed her by; and it was the spring.
She opened the propaganda the next day, when the widow admired the pink tulips.
"They're nothing to Mr. Nelson's. He's such a clever gardener. But then he does everything well. Such a brain! He'll be a big man some day. ”

“ To Nelson's horror, they gave Fay her first inspiration.
"My first duty will be to protect my furry subjects from the cruelty of man."
Her sharp eyes soon discovered a gin, which she made Nelson destroy, with some damage to his fingers, while she waved her wand—a peeled switch—to demonstrate that she was doing the actual work.
"A real fairy ought to do things off her own bat," he grumbled.
"A fairy uses man to confound man. ”

“ She wanted pink tulips by Sunday, and if there are none, I'll be fired. And—and I do love the garden so!"
"Yes—as a woman loves the bird on her hat. And you water it with the sun on it and give the poor flowers measly sprinkles just to draw their roots to the surface. And prune ramblers instead of cutting out. And give foul feeders, like roses, nothing but water. Oh, yes, I dare say you do love the garden! Umph!"
The last exclamation is what Nelson actually uttered, but in it he managed to embody the drift of the other sentences. ”

“ Moreover, as a real gardener himself, he judged her by her works and found them evil. He had seen some of her first failures on the rubbish heap—boxes of pathetic seedlings, whose stems, through over-long exposure under glass, had been drawn out to white threads. ”

“ He must be making a lot of money—he's so regular and keen. Always catches the nine-fifteen. The dependable sort make the best husbands, don't they, madam?"
The widow, who regarded every adjacent male as her perquisite, looked at Fay with eyes of suspicion.
"If you would spare my garden a little of the interest you lavish upon Mr. Nelson, I might point out there's a plantain on the lawn."
The next Sunday Nelson, wearing seasonable grey and the spring in his heart, called upon Nina Lemon. ”

“ She dreamed of someone splendid and romantic—quite different to a man who wore white spats and caught the nine-fifteen.
Yet, as Nelson stopped to light his pipe she studied his face with sudden interest. He had good eyes and a finely-cut mouth. At that moment he looked a man one could grow to like. Besides, he was the only man she knew She almost wished he did not dislike her so thoroughly. ... And so to bed.
She was up with the dawn to inspect the tulip bed, for the widow wished for pink tulips by Sunday, and Fay had rather less control over the sun than over her mowing machine. ”