Long years ago the tree had given up blooming , nor could all the pruning and care given it coax a single blossom from it . Miss Corona , tinctured with the superstition apt to wait on a lonely womanhood , believed in her heart that the rosebush had a secret sympathy with the fortunes of the Gordon women . She , the last of them on the old homestead , would never need the bride roses . Wherefore , then , should the old tree bloom ? And now , after all these years , it had flung all its long-hoarded sweetness into blossom again . Miss Corona thrilled at the thought . The rosebush had bloomed again for a Gordon bride , but Miss Corona was sure there was another meaning in it too ; she believed it foretokened some change in her own life , some rejuvenescence of love and beauty like to that of the ancient rose-tree . She bent over its foam of loveliness almost reverently . `` They have bloomed for Juliet 's wedding , '' she murmured . `` A Gordon bride must wear the bride roses , indeed she must . And this -- why , it is almost a miracle . '' She ran , light-footedly as a girl , to the house for scissors and a basket . She would send Juliet Gordon the bride roses . Her cheeks were pink from excitement as she snipped them off . How lovely they were ! How very large and fragrant ! It was as if all the grace and perfume and beauty and glory of those twenty lost summers were found here at once in them . When Miss Corona had them ready , she went to the door and called , `` Charlotte ! Charlotte ! '' Now Charlotta , having atoned to her conscience for the destruction of the green and yellow bowl by faithfully weeding the garden , a task which she hated above all else , was singing a hymn among the sweet peas , and her red braids were over her shoulders .
This ought to have warned Miss Corona , but Miss Corona was thinking of other things , and kept on calling patiently , while Charlotta weeded away XXXXX dear life , and seemed smitten with treble deafness .
above after ago as by for of on over with