t it that one misses in bigger places, and the mater
is a genius at gardening, and gets the maximum of effect out of the
space. Are you fond of a garden?"

"I've never had one!" Claire said, and sighed at the thought. "That's
one of the Joys that does _not_ go with a roving life! I've never been
able to have as many flowers as I wanted, or to choose the right foliage
to go with them, or to pick them with the dew on their leaves." She
paused, smitten with a sudden recollection. "One day this year, a
close, smouldering oven-ey day, I came in from school and found--a box
full of roses! There were _dewdrops_ on the leaves, or what looked like
dewdrops. They were as fresh as if they had been gathered an hour
before. Dozens of roses, with great long stems. They made my room into
a bower."

"Really! Did they? How very jolly," was Erskine's comment.

His voice sounded cool and unperturbed, and Claire did not venture to
look at his face. She thought with a pang, that perhaps after all she
had been mistaken. Perhaps Mrs Willoughby had been the real donor ...
perhaps he had never thought... She hurried on terrified lest her
thoughts might be suspected.

"Mrs Fanshawe has been so kind, allowing me to send boxes of fruit and
flowers to a friend in hospital. One of our mistresses, who is being
treated for rheumatism."

"Poor creature!" said the Captain with careless sympathy. "Dull work
being in hospital in this weather. How have you been getting on with my
mother, Miss Gifford? I'm awfully glad to find you down here, though I
should have enjoyed showing you round myself. I'm a bit jealous of the
mater there! She's a delightful companion, isn't she? So keen and
alert. I don't know any woman of her age who is so young in spirit.
It's a great gift, but--" he paused, drew another cigarette from his
case, and stared at it reflectively, "it has its drawbacks!"

"Yes. I can understand that. It must be hard to feel young, to _be_
young in heart and mind, and to be handicapped by a body that persists
in growing old. I've often thought how trying it must be."

"I suppose so. Yes. I'm afraid I wasn't thinking about it in that
light. I was not discussing the position from my mother's point of
view, but from--her son's! It would be easier sometimes to deal with a
placid old lady who was content with her knitting, and cherished an old-
fashioned belief in the superiority of man! Well! let us say the
equality