Read css property

Read css property

I have a mouseover function on a certain element.
is it possible to read a css property onMouseOver and write it again onMouse out?

Here is the function:
$(".hov").bind("mouseover",function(){
    $(this).find("a").css("color","#ffffff");
});

$(".hovdiv").bind("mouseout",function(e){
    $(this).find("a").css("color","#555555");
});

So in the first function i want to store the current color of the "a" element in a var.
Then make it white.
Afterwards i want to give the same element its original color back.

Could someone please help me out with this?
Thank you