Her hands and arms were encased in long white gloves, chosen from the box with which Monsieur Lamonti had presented her, and as Faxon entered, she was just tying a long ribbon around a bouquet which she had arranged from Monsieur Lamonti's floral offering.
The young man's eyes glowed with tender admiration as Mollie went forward to meet him.
"Ah," he said ingenuously and with a thrill of fondness in his voice as he clasped her extended hand, "I am so glad you chose the box."
Mollie laughed musically, for his words told her that he had hoped to find her in evening dress, and was more than pleased with her appearance.
"It was very kind of you to give me the option," she replied with a glance which plainly told him that she had understood his motive and thoroughly appreciated it.
"Well," he observed, with a twinkle in his handsome eyes, "I thought we might as well make the most of our opportunity. What lovely flowers!"
"They are, indeed!" she returned. "Monsieur Lamonti sent them."
Then as she glanced at the lapel of his coat she continued: "And you must have a boutonniere; may I select something for you?"
"Not if you will have to rob this; I would not have a single blossom disarranged," said Clifford, as he eyed the bouquet admiringly.
"Oh, no; I have quantities more," said Mollie, as she gently released the hand which he had unconsciously been holding and turned to a table which there was a large glass dish filled with flowers.
She bent over them and paused to consider what she would offer him. Presently she detached three small crimson moss-rosebuds with a single spray of green leaves and held them up before him.
A great shock went coursing through Clifford as he took them from her white gloved hands and regarded them with a yearning look.
Then his eyes--almost black now with the intensity of his emotion--sought her face.
"May I?" he breathed, "may I wear them with the assurance of what they express? Do you know the language of the red moss-rosebud, Mollie?"
A scarlet flood leaped to the fair girl's temples as she realized, too late, the significance of her gift; while his use of her given name, for the first time, set every pulse to bounding wildly. She lifted a startled look to his face; then as quickly her golden lashes dropped upon her flaming cheeks.