The scent of the roses was a delicate, heady thing that caused the young woman standing in the rose garden to almost forget their thorns; a strange parallel to the situation she found herself in with the friend now approaching her. He spoke her name with the low, intimate tone of one well acquainted with her. Inside the house a trio of violins played, serving to underscore the romantic setting. Indeed, both of the pair were clad so that the picture they made was one of perfect Victorian romance. She turned towards him with an impatient little movement. "James, I - don't get ideas in your head." "My dear Glencora, how can I not?" He looked at her with an expression that would have melted a heart of stone. "Is it not natural that I should wish to claim a closer acquaintance with you?" "I have said before that we can be friends," she said, and bit her lip. "You know I have. But nothing else. Just friends - no more and, I hope, no less." "You would take no friendship at all, above dating me," he said, a shade of bitterness in his voice. "I don't feel that way about you," Cora returned spiritedly. "I don't want to date anyone I'm not attracted to, and indeed, I don't know I've ever felt romantic attraction at all. It wouldn't be fair on you, James." "I don't want fair, I want you," he said impetuously, to which the lady's head tossed as she looked away. "You're treating me like a commodity to be bought and sold. I'm my own person, and I'm saying no to you!" James looked down, expression sober as if she had halfway convinced him. "And while you're at it, stop calling me Glencora. I know it's my name, but nobody calls me it except you. It sounds ridiculous." "It suits you beautifully," he said, gesturing slightly to the gown she wore. "Just like my namesake, I know. Seriously, though, if you can't stop with this we can't be friends." She softened at his expression, and added, "I want to be your friend - if you'll let me. And you'd be a simply beautiful boyfriend - for a girl who'll appreciate you the way you should be appreciated." Cora smiled at him, then left that too-romantic place before he convinced her against her better judgement.