The Singing Roses by Jeffrey Salmon, from Dagon magazine no. 18/19, 1987

(via John Coulthart)

“And what is sin?” said Cotgrave.
“I think I must reply to your question by another. What would your feelings be, seriously, if your cat or your dog began to talk to you, and to dispute with you in human accents? You would be overwhelmed with horror. I am sure of it. And if the roses in your garden sang a weird song, you would go mad.”
from The White People by Arthur Machen. A link to Machen’s House of Souls [via archive.org, The White People begins on page 111]