She had been dressed in blue , too -- a pale , dainty blue ; but that was of course ; he had known she must wear it ; and he was sure her name must be Alice . When , later on , he discovered that it was , he felt no surprise . He carried some mayflowers up to the west gable and put them under the picture . But the charm had gone out of the tribute ; and looking at the picture , he thought how scant was the justice it did her . Her face was so much sweeter , her eyes so much softer , her hair so much more lustrous . The soul of his love had gone from the room and from the picture and from his dreams . When he tried to think of the Alice he loved he saw , not the shadowy spirit occupant of the west gable , but the young girl who had stood under the pine , beautiful with the beauty of moonlight , of starshine on still water , of white , wind-swayed flowers growing in silent , shadowy places . He did not then realize what this meant : had he realized it he would have suffered bitterly ; as it was he felt only a vague discomfort -- a curious sense of loss and gain commingled . He saw her again that afternoon on her way home . She did not pause by the garden but walked swiftly past . Thereafter , every day for a week he watched unseen to see her pass his home . Once a little child was with her , clinging to her hand . No child had ever before had any part in the shy man 's dream life . But that night in the twilight the vision of the rocking-chair was a girl in a blue print dress , with a little , golden-haired shape at her knee -- a shape that lisped and prattled and called her `` mother ; '' and both of them were his . It was the next day that he failed for the first time to put flowers in the west gable . Instead , he cut a loose handful of daffodils and , looking furtively about him as if committing a crime , he laid them across the footpath under the pine . She must pass that way ; her feet would crush them if she failed to see them . Then he slipped back into his garden , half exultant , half repentant . From a safe retreat he saw her pass by and stoop to lift his flowers . Thereafter he put some in the same place every day .
When Alice Reade saw the flowers she knew at once who had put them there , and divined XXXXX they were for her .
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