MINNIE. Well, we'd better sit on the porch, then, it's rather damp
here, don't you think? [_She moves toward the south steps._]
HERBERT [_following_]. Yes, I believe it is rather damp. There's been a
heavy dew. One can't afford to get one's feet wet with so much
bronchitis about.
MINNIE [_sitting on the top step_]. No indeed--I can't imagine where
they can be! They were ahead of us all the way in. Why didn't we think
to ask at the livery if----
HERBERT. I'm sure it wouldn't have done any good. You see they didn't
get their horse where I got ours.
MINNIE. Oh, yes, to be sure. [_Anxiously._] But where in the world can
they be?
HERBERT. I recall having read once--in some French book if I remember
rightly--that one should never count upon an affianced couple being in a
given place at a given time.
MINNIE [_smiling at him_]. I'm not sure that isn't true. Still, Hilda is
usually quite discreet, and I can't----
HERBERT. Doubtless they'll be here in a moment; I shouldn't worry.
MINNIE [_suddenly_]. Why, how very impolite of me. To allow you to sit
there all this time holding that basket. Won't you set it on the porch?
[HERBERT _has held the basket on his knees with his hands spread out
over the cover._]
HERBERT. Oh--ah--I wasn't thinking of--there, I guess that will be safe.
[_He sets the basket on the porch at his side._]
MINNIE [_leaning forward and gazing past him toward the street_]. I wish
they'd come! Wasn't it perfectly absurd of me to lose my key? Keeping
you here! Are you quite sure you'd just as lief?
HERBERT. Yes, indeed--really--I like to sit out--really, it doesn't
matter, not in the least.
MINNIE. Well while we are waiting we might as well go on where we left
off. You were saying, on the way up from the livery---- [_Hardly for a
moment has_ HERBERT _taken his eyes off the girl at his side._]
HERBERT [_floundering_]. Oh, yes, as I was saying--the--oh--ah--I was
say--what _was_ I saying, Miss----
MINNIE. Have you forgotten so soon? I'm afraid the subject couldn't have
held all your thought. You were telling me about the triliums.
HERBERT [_brightly_]. Oh, yes, to be sure; of course--the triliums. I
was telling you they were to be found on the plains--of all places in
the world--right in the heart of the great American desert--as I'm
told.
MINNIE [_earnestly_]. Are they, indeed? Really, I never heard of such a
thing. Gray says positively, I am sure, that they are to be found
growing only in damp soil; near rivers, for instance, or in marshes.
I've never succeeded in finding them around here anywhere except down by
the Huron River or out State Street at Tamarack Swamp. And to think of
them growing away out there! It is the strangest thing I ever heard
of--why, there's no water for miles, is there?
HERBERT. Not a drop. I'm told they've been found in the most barren
places; flowering alongside cacti and sage-brush.
MINNIE. You are quite sure they were the trilium, are you? It's possible
of course----
HERBERT. That my informant might be mistaken--yes; but I don't think he
was. They look precisely the same, and they analyze the same. I've seen
his specimens. The leaf is identical in form. It is a trifle larger,
that is all. I've never been able to distinguish any other variation,
however slight.