-tree. A rose-vine had
clambered up to the topmost top of it, and spread in all directions, so
that everywhere, vivid against the grey-green, hung red roses.

"And now, if you will come, I 'll show you the ninth wonder of the
world," she promised. She led him down a long wide pathway, bordered
on each side by hortensias in full blossom, two swelling hedges of
fire, where purple dissolved into blue and crimson, blue into a hundred
green, mauve, and violet overtones and undertones of blue, and crimson
into every palest, vaguest, most elusive, and every intensest red the
broken sunbeam bleeds upon the spectrum.

"But this," she said, "though you might well think it so, is not the
ninth wonder of the world."

"I think the ninth wonder of the world, as well as the first and last,
is walking beside me," said Anthony, in silence, to the sky.

The path ended in an arbour, roofed and walled with rose-vines; and
herein were garden-chairs and a table.

"Shall we sit here a little?" proposed Susanna.

She put down her sunshade, and they established themselves under the
roof of roses. On the table stood a Chinese vase, red and gold, with a
dragon-handled cover.

"Occasion 's everything, beyond a doubt," thought Anthony. "But the
rub is to know an occasion when you see it. Is _this_ an occasion?"

He looked at her, and his heart trembled, and held him back.

"Oh, the fragrance of the roses," said Susanna. "How do they do it? A
pinch of sunshine, a drop or two of dew, a puff of air, a handful of
brown earth--and out of these they distil what seems as if it were the
very smell of heaven."

But she spoke in tones noticeably hushed, as if fearing to be overheard.

Anthony looked round.

A moment ago there had not been a bird in sight (though, of course, the
day was thridded through and through with the notes of those who were
out of sight). But now, in the path before the arbour, all facing
towards it, there must have been a score of birds--three or four
sparrows, a pair of chaffinches, and then greenfinches, greenfinches,
greenfinches. They were all facing expectantly towards the arbour,
hopping towards it, hesitating, hopping on again, coming nearer, nearer.

Susanna, moving softly, lifted the dragon-handled cover from the
Chinese vase. It was full of birdseed.

"Ah, I see," said Anthony. "Pensioners. But I suppose you have
reflected that to give alms to the able-bodied is to pauperise them."

"Hush," she