f your
wits... Those little patches are the girls' own gardens. You can have
lessons in gardening, and get a prize if you are clever. I don't go in
for that either, for it's an extra expense."

"Oh, I must have a garden!" cried Rhoda quickly. "I adore flowers, and
they could send me cuttings from home. I always had my own garden, but
I didn't do the work, of course. I just said how it was to be arranged,
and what plants I wanted, and every one admired it, and said how
successful it was. I had big clumps of things, you know; not one
straggling plant here and another there, but all banked up together.
You should have seen my lily bed! I made the men collect all the odd
bulbs and plant them together, and they were a perfect show. The scent
met you half-way down the path; it was almost overpowering. And then I
had a lot of the new cactus dahlias, and left only about two branches on
each, so that they came up like one huge bush with all the lovely
contrasting colours. Many people say they don't like dahlias, but that
is only because they haven't seen them properly grown."

"Oh well, I loathe them myself, and I always shall do. You never get
any satisfaction out of them, however pretty they may be, for as soon as
people see them, they begin groaning and saying, `Oh, dear, dear, autumn
flowers already! How sad it is. Winter will soon be upon us.'"
Dorothy sniffed derisively. It was evident that no support was to be
expected from her on the dahlia question, and Rhoda felt that only time
and experience could prove to her the folly of her position.

When all the out-buildings had been explained, Kathleen led the way down
a winding path which seemed to lead to nowhere in particular, but rather
to come to an abrupt _cul-de-sac_ in the shape of a high grey wall. Her
companions wondered at her choice, but she went forward with an air of
determination, so that there was nothing left but to follow, and hope
soon to return to more interesting scenes. When she came to the end of
the path, however, she stood still and began to smile with a most
baffling air of mystery. What did it mean? What were they expected to
see? The girls wheeled to and fro, looked at the paths, the beds, the
flowers, frowned in bewilderment, and then suddenly lifted their eyes to
the wall, and uttered simultaneous exclamations of surprise.

The wall was dotted over with little tablets of stone, on each of which
was a neatly engraved inscripti