Zona Gale

“ I said, as became an oracle. “Confidence is the very prince among spells. You remember,” I added, drawing from the bowl of ferns the rose that she had brought to me that morning, “the tree of Blush roses where this grew—the one by the turn of the path beyond the sundial?”
Yes, Avis remembered. And she paid me excellent attention, considering that she saw nothing but the drive. Is it not strange how the serene, grave heart of her flowered before me like that of a girl in the sweet of her shy, first love? ”

“ And there moving across the green toward the bed of bowing ferns went the two, Avis and Lawrence Knight, and the whole picture had about it such an air of Paradise that I turned to Pelleas with happy tears.
“Pelleas,” I said, “we are all in a kind of enchantment, aren’t we—aren’t we? To be happy one has only to find a certain spell, for oneself or for some one else. ”

“ And for that matter, since in matters of romance I am a most interfering old woman, near my own heart too.
“‘This'” quoted I gravely, “‘is of world of spells; let us repeat some.’”
“With all my heart,” said Lawrence Knight again.
“Ah, well,” said I airily, “for myself I have any number of spells in which I believe infinitely.”
“I have no doubt of that,” he said gently, “or of their potency.”
“For example,” I pursued, “when I wish to see a rose, I walk in the garden. When I decide to sleep, I shut my eyes. When I feel lonely, I send for some one I love——”
“Is that so easy?” ”

“ Do you know that I chose the word ‘formula’ because you are a man, and I always begin by talking science to men for fear they will not understand art? Throw away your search for formula and take to saying spells instead! ”

“ Was it not simple—I ask you whether ever in the world a great, distinguished man fell so neatly into the trap laid for him by a designing old woman? Yes, when one thinks of it, surely others have done so. How else have women achieved such a mighty reputation for guiding conversation and molding the opinions of salons? ”

“ He put his arm about me. and we sat so, watching the two who walked below.
“Say over the motto, Pelleas, please,” I asked him presently.
And he answered with the sun-dial words:
No rose is dead
That in this garden blows;
No hour is fled
That my dial shows;
True love is never sped ”