| A large portion of them, as the girl afterwards discovered, had blight or mildew at their hearts; but, viewed at a fair distance, the whole rose-bush looked as if it had been brought from Eden that very summer, together with the mold in which it grew. The truth was, nevertheless, that it had been planted by Alice Pyncheon-she was Phoebe's great-great-grand-aunt-in soil which, reckoning only its cultivation as a garden plot, was now unctuous with nearly two hundred years of vegetable decay. Growing as they did, however, out of the old earth, the flowers still sent a fresh and sweet incense up to their Creator, nor could it have been the less pure and acceptable, because Phoebe's young breath mingled with it, as the fragrance floated past the window. | Они по большей части, как девушка увидела после, была изъедены червями или увяли от времени, но издали кустарник казался перенесенным сюда прямо из Эдема вместе с почвой, на которой вырос, хотя на самом деле его посадила Элис Пинчон, прапрабабушка Фиби, а земля была старой. Однако же цветы источали изумительно свежий и сладкий аромат. |