Stephanotis was very eager to impress Isabel with the ardor of his intentions. He had woken up early and seeing Hortensia surrounded by her baskets of clean but wet washing - asked if she needed any help with hanging it out to dry - it was an especially frisky and delightfully windy morning and Hortensia was washing all manner of heavy covers and blankets as she knew that they could easily dry in a day.
The moment she say Stephanotis's face she knew that he desperately needed to unburden his heart. 'My Dear Stephanotis, how very kind of you to offer, of course you can help - you have come along at just the right moment', and with that she set about instructing him in the gentle art of drying washing by draping all the surrounding bushes with the wet blankets and cushion covers and covering the washing lines with unwieldy eiderdowns.
After all the running and spreading and pining down, Stephanotis felt much calmer. 'You see Hortensia, I love Isabel and I so want her to understand that I want to be her sweetheart and begin proper courting and I don't know how to approach her or even if she likes me!' Poor Stephanotis was all of a bother and in real distress, Hortensia reassured him as she poured out a generous cup of her dandelion coffee and a large slice of the seedy cake left over from the Revels, 'What you need is a token of your affections - something that is unmistakably a symbol of your love, something that lets her know just how much you adore her.' Stephanotis was thinking, he munched his way through his cake, gulped down his coffee, gave baby Harriet a big kiss on her head and rushed out of the door - all without saying a word.......
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