Inkling Explorations And Roses

                  

It's June, which means a new Inkling Explorations theme.

It's a good one this time!!
The theme is: Roses in books or films.

As Heidi herself mentions, the Anne Of Green Gables series mentions roses quite a lot, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the scene I've chosen comes from one of those books.

More precisely, it comes from Anne's House Of Dreams, and it's the scene where Owen Ford proposes to Leslie.

                  

"This house was builded and consecrated by love," said Owen. "Such houses, MUST exert an influence over those who live in them. And this garden—it is over sixty years old and the history of a thousand hopes and joys is written in its blossoms. Some of those flowers were actually set out by the schoolmaster's bride, and she has been dead for thirty years. Yet they bloom on every summer. Look at those red roses, Leslie—how they queen it over everything else!"

"I love the red roses," said Leslie. "Anne likes the pink ones best, and Gilbert likes the white. But I want the crimson ones. They satisfy some craving in me as no other flower does."

"These roses are very late—they bloom after all the others have gone—and they hold all the warmth and soul of the summer come to fruition," said Owen, plucking some of the glowing, half-opened buds.

"The rose is the flower of love—the world has acclaimed it so for centuries. The pink roses are love hopeful and expectant—the white roses are love dead or forsaken—but the red roses—ah, Leslie, what are the red roses?"

"Love triumphant," said Leslie in a low voice.

"Yes—love triumphant and perfect. Leslie, you know—you understand. I have loved you from the first. And I KNOW you love me—I don't need to ask you. But I want to hear you say it—my darling—my darling!"

Leslie said something in a very low and tremulous voice. Their hands and lips met; it was life's supreme moment for them and as they stood there in the old garden, with its many years of love and delight and sorrow and glory, he crowned her shining hair with the red, red rose of a love triumphant.

Isn't it a sweet scene? Apart from the whole proposal part, I remember that 14 year old me was thrilled to learn about the language of roses, when I read this for the first time.

Would you like to read about more rose related scenes?
Then be sure to pop over at Heidi's blog and read the other participants' entries.