etailed for his benefit.

"Bravo, Mariquita!" he cried. "I recognise in you the instinct of the
true gardener--a rare thing, let me tell you, to find in a woman. Women
like show and colour, a big effect, rather than interesting detail, but
I'm thankful to find you are an exception. Come over to-morrow and see
_my_ garden! I keep a corner for myself at the end of the shrubbery,
and forbid any of the men to touch it, and I flatter myself I have some
treasures you won't find in any other garden in England. I brought them
home from my travels, and have coaxed them to grow by looking after them
myself and studying their little ways. They need a lot of care, and get
sulky if they are not humoured, but it's the whole interest of gardening
to master these little eccentricities."

"Just my sentiments!" cried Peggy; but when in due time Rob escorted her
to see his precious garden, her face was blank with disappointment. Two
straggling beds with a rockery filling up the corner, and scarcely a
gleam of colour from one end to another! That at least was the effect
from a distance, but as the proprietor pointed out his treasures,
insignificant little blossoms were distinguishable among the greenery,
and flowers the size of a threepenny piece were produced proudly from
lurking-places and exhibited for admiration. They all came from some
unheard-of spots at the other side of nowhere, had been reared with
prodigious difficulty, and were of such rarity and value that the heads
of public gardens had paid special pilgrimage to The Larches in order to
behold them. Peggy's eyebrows went up in a peak, and her face
lengthened, but it was no use, she could not be enthusiastic, could not
even affect an interest in the struggling little lives.

After exclaiming: "How strange!" "How odd!" and "Fancy that!" a dozen
times in succession, her very powers of exclamation seemed to depart,
and she was reduced to sighs and grunts of response. In the middle of
the history of a jungle plant which was the glory of the collection, Rob
suddenly lifted his head and put a startling question:

"Are you interested? Do you care to hear about it?"

Peggy looked at him and made a little sign of apology.

"Not--_much_, Rob! It's curious, of course, but very `niggly,' don't
you think? It makes no effect at all in the bed."

Rob rose from his knees, flicked the dust off his trousers, and cleared
his throat in that dry sepulchral manner which people a