"That's nothing," giggled Kate. "You ought to hear her swear. And she smokes like a fish."
"Dear me! This is very sad. Did you say she smokes like—a fish?"
"Like a fish," repeated the cook solemnly.
The visitor's reflections were interrupted here by the return of Lionel carrying a pink work basket, a yellow embroidered tea cosey, a green and red sofa pillow and an immense Jack Horner pie covered with white crinkly paper.
"Here are the articles," said the gardener, and he proceeded to load them, as best he could, upon the portly person of Ferdinand Spooner.
"It's fortunate I came in a carriage," puffed the latter.
"You're forgetting the rose bush," said Kate.
Spooner glanced dubiously at the rather dejected flower in its tinsel basket.
"It isn't so very wonderful, is it? Ah! An idea! Will you present this rose bush to the Countess Clendennin with the compliments of Mr. Spooner, Mr. Ferdinand Spooner. Don't forget." He moved awkwardly toward the conservatory door. "Oh, I forgot the ten shillings." He looked down helplessly at his bulky treasures. "It's rather difficult for me to—er——"
But Lionel cut him short with a patronizing wave of the hand.