"I am not shocked in the least," I said. "I think lessons on a hot afternoon must be a great bore for little girls."
"What an awful thing to say! I am afraid you are a very wicked man, but, of course, you don't mean it. Miriam is rather tired of talking to you, and asked me to come and take her place. What shall we do?"
I was rather disturbed at the information so frankly delivered, and said boldly: "I want to see the garden. Will you take me round?"
The request, which had driven Miriam away, seemed to make no disagreeable impression on Mollie. She jumped up at once and said: "Yes, come along; and after that we will play tennis, unless you're too tired. Tom won't play with me,[15] and I hardly ever get a game."
We went round the garden, which was beautifully laid out and beautifully kept. We came across three or four gardeners, all toiling as if for their lives, and one of them, I supposed, was the baronet of whom Lord Arthur had told me, although none of them looked in the least like a baronet.
There was a lovely rose-garden, in a corner by itself, and as roses were rather a hobby of mine I examined each of the beds with some care. In one of them I stooped down to pick up a weed. It was the first I had seen anywhere.
"Oh, you mustn't do that," said Mollie, with round eyes expressive of horror. "Thank goodness none of the gardeners saw you! Can't you plant it again to look as if it had not been pulled up?"
I replanted the weed as if it had been something rare.
"That looks all right," said Mollie, with her head on one side. "Let's go and find Mr. Hobbs and tell him."
We went in search of the head gardener, whom we found digging in a corner of the vegetable garden. He was an austere man, and drew himself up with displeasure when Mollie told him that we had found a weed in the bed of white roses.