The primrose lights of many candles began to bloom
all over Kaskaskia. Rice parted the double hedge of currant bushes which
divided his father's garden from Saucier's, and followed Angelique upon
her own gravel walk, holding her by his sauntering. They could smell the
secluded mould in the shadow of the currant roots, which dew was just
reaching. She went to a corner where a thicket of roses grew. She had
taken a handful of them to Maria, and now gathered a fresh handful for
herself, reaching in deftly with mitted arms, holding her gown between
her knees to keep it back from the briers. Some of them were wild roses,
with a thin layer of petals and effulgent yellow centres. There was a
bouquet of garden-breaths from gray-green sage and rosemary leaves and
the countless herbs and vegetables which every slaveholding Kaskaskian
cultivated for his large household. Pink and red hollyhocks stood
sentinel along the paths. The slave cabins, the loom-house, the kitchen,
and a row of straw beehives were ranged at the back of the lawn, edging
the garden.
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