“What has the girl got on?” my companion asked.

“A blue serge skirt and pink blouse.”

“I think it’s Millie,” she said. “What colour hair?”

“Very light,” I said.

“Yes, that’s Millie. She’s the head girl. She’s awfully decent.”

“There’s an old man tying up roses,” I said.

“Yes, that’s Peter. He’s the gardener. He’s hundreds of years old!”

“And here comes a dark girl in red, on crutches.”

“Yes,” she said; “that’s Beryl.”

And so we walked on, and in steering this little thing about I discovered that I was ten times more thoughtful already than I had any notion of, and also that the necessity of describing the surroundings to another makes them more interesting.