"'Tis Papa's beauty they frame, sir, not mine," she replied.
Twenty minutes later Sir Maurice walked into the rose-garden to find Bancroft and Cleone seated in an arbour engaged in close converse, while Mr. Charteris nipped off the dead flowers nearby.
Mr. Charteris welcomed his visitor with a wave of his large scissors.
"Good day, Sir Maurice! What a very pleasant, warm day it is, to be sure! Did you ride over to see us?"
Sir Maurice drew him apart.
"I met that—that rainbow in the village. What a plague is it? What does he do here?"
Mr. Charteris' chubby countenance was wreathed in a great, sly smile, suspiciously like a grin.
"Have you ever seen aught to equal it?" he chuckled. "'Tis young Bancroft—in seclusion."
"I guessed as much. In seclusion, is he? Puppy!"
Mr. Charteris held up his hands.