"We saw your garden from the top of the Scar
that day we went into your grounds, and I thought it looked _lovely_."

"Well, I believe I have as good a show as most people in the
neighbourhood," admitted the colonel; "but you shall judge for yourself.
Here we are at the landing-place. Take care! Give me your hand, and I
will help you out."

The Chase appeared to have a private wooden jetty of its own, which led
on to a strip of shingly beach, at the other side of which an iron gate
admitted them into a small plantation of fir trees, and through a
shrubbery into the garden. Isobel could not restrain a cry of pleasure
at the sight of the flowers, which were now in the prime of their early
autumn glory, and she did not know whether to admire more the little
beds, gay with bright blossoms, which dotted the smoothly mown lawns, or
the splendid herbaceous borders behind, full of dahlias, sunflowers,
gladioli, hollyhocks, torch lilies, tall bell-flowers, and other
beautiful plants.

"I must show you all my treasures," said the colonel, pleased with her
appreciation, as he took her to the pond where the pink water-lilies
grew, and the bamboo and eucalyptus were flourishing in the open air.

"You don't often find subtropical plants so far north," he explained,
with a touch of pride as he pointed them out; "but this is a very
sheltered situation, and we protect them with matting during the winter.
You should see the irises in the spring and early summer; they are a
mass of delicate colour, and thrive so well down by the water's edge."

The rock garden, with its pretty Alpine blossoms; the rosery, where the
queen of flowers seemed represented by every variety, from the delicate
yellow of the tea to the rich red of the damask; the fountain, where the
water flowed from the pouting lips of a chubby cherub, astride on a
dolphin, into a basin filled with gold and silver fish; the terraced
walk, covered by a fine magnolia; and the summer-house on the wall,
containing a fixed telescope through which you could look out over the
sea--all were an equal delight to Isobel's wondering eyes, for she had
never before been in such beautiful grounds. Nor was the kitchen-garden
less of a surprise, with its peaches and apricots hanging on the red
brick walls, carefully netted to preserve them from the birds; its beds
of tall, feathery asparagus, and its ripe greengages and early apples.
The trim neatness of the vegetable borders was enlivened by