razy about my garden. Finally an
American gentleman came along one day, and he put up at my place, and
he saw that I was as near ruined as they make 'em, and he says to me,
'You're no good to run a hotel, nor yet a store, and this aint your
country for a cent. What you're born for is to grow flowers. You can't
afford to do it here, because nobody'll pay you for it, but you gather
up your seeds and roots and so on, and come along with me to Atlanta,
Georgia, and I'll put fat on your bones.'

"That's what he said to me, and I took him at his word, and I was with
him two years, and then I thought I'd like to come to England, and since
then I've worked my way up here, till now I take a Royal Horticultural
medal regular, and there's a clematis with salmon-coloured bars that'll
be in the market next spring that's named after my master. And what
could I ask more 'n that?"

"Quite right," said Thorpe. "What time do they have breakfast here?"

The gardener's round, phlegmatic, florid countenance had taken on a mild
glow of animation during his narrative. It relapsed into lethargy at the
advent of this new topic.

"It seems to me they eat at all hours," he said. "But if you want to see
his Lordship," he went on, considering, "about noon would be your best
time."

"See his Lordship!" repeated Thorpe, with an impatient grin. "Why I'm a
guest here in the house. All I want is something to eat."

"A guest," Gafferson repeated in turn, slowly. There was nothing
unpleasant in the intonation, and Thorpe's sharp glance failed to detect
any trace of offensive intention in his companion's fatuous visage. Yet
it seemed to pass between the two men that Gafferson was surprised, and
that there were abundant grounds for his surprise.

"Why, yes," said Thorpe, with as much nonchalance as he could summon,
"your master is one of my directors. I've taken a fancy to him, and I'm
going to make a rich man of him. He was keen about my seeing his place
here, and kept urging me to come, and so finally I've got away over
Sunday to oblige him. By the way--I shall buy an estate in the country
as soon as the right thing offers, and I shall want to set up no end of
gardens and greenhouses and all that. I see that I couldn't come to a
better man than you for advice. I daresay I'll put the whole arrangement
of it in your hands. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"Whatever his Lordship agrees to," the gardener replied, sententiously.
He turned to the stagi