"Have you much of a garden at Sherleigh?" he asked, when they were seated at the table.
"I dare say not," replied Sir Philip, "I have not been there for years, and people seldom attend much to a garden unless there is a lady to overlook them."
"Bessy never does anything to my flowers, except gather them," said Captain Gage.
"What!" said Elizabeth, laughing, "did you find out that I took the red passion-flower yesterday?"
"Yes, I saw it," said her father, "will you write those letters for me after breakfast?"
Elizabeth always wrote her father's business letters. She seated herself at a table and selected pens and paper.
"Papa! I must complain of you," she said, "you take my best envelopes for everybody. Suppose I were to want to send out invitations; I should have nothing but coarse paper left."
"Which? The envelopes with the crest? Oh! I will be careful in future; you are very stingy of your best paper."
"Well, I am to write to Palmer about the meadows, and to Brown about the lease. Anything else?"
"Why I don't know what to do about the bees; if you could send a line to Harding—"