nd
began digging in the flower beds.

"You don't mind, do you, Mrs. O'Reilly?" she apologized. "I'm so glad
spring is here at last that I've got to take it out in something besides
book-learning."

"I'm only too happy, Miss," said the widow. "Young ladies ain't often so
fond of the smell of the earth."

It was Molly who had introduced the cult of the garden to the other
girls, and it was she who had first induced Mrs. O'Reilly to resurrect
some garden seats from the cellar and a rustic table. Even as early as
the first of May they had tea under the apple trees, and as the days
grew warmer their friends found them reading and studying in the sunny
enclosure.

They had no idea of the charming picture they made grouped about in
their garden; nor did they dream that Mrs. O'Reilly had occasionally
allowed a visitor or two to peer at them through a crack in the dining
room shutters. Mrs. McLean and Professor Green were two such privileged
characters one afternoon when they called at O'Reilly's to leave notes
of acceptance to a tea to which they had been invited by the old Queen's
circle. The invitations in themselves were rather unusual. They were
little water-color sketches done by Judy and Otoyo on oblong cards. Each
sketch showed a bit of the garden, and the invitations stated that on
the afternoon of June second there would be tea in the Garden of
O'Reilly's.

"Where is this garden, Mrs. O'Reilly?" Mrs. McLean had demanded, and the
Irish woman, beckoning mysteriously, had shown them the scene through
the crack in the shutter.

"Why, bless the bairns," exclaimed Mrs. McLean, gazing through the
opening, while Professor Green impatiently awaited his turn. "They
might be a lot of wood nymphs disporting themselves under the trees."

Then the Professor had looked and had discovered Molly Brown, in her
usual blue linen--which was probably only an imitation linen--raking
grass. Judy was softly twanging her guitar. Nance on her knees beside a
bed of lilies was digging in the earth, and the others were variously
engaged while Edith read aloud.

The Professor looked long at the charming scene and then observed:

"It is a pretty picture. Wherever these girls go they create an
atmosphere."

But he was thinking of only one girl.

Someone else had called at O'Reilly's privately and asked to see the
garden.

It was Judith Blount who stood like a dark shadow against the window and
peered through the crack in the green shu