"If you're head gardener, what makes you plant onions?"
"It's tiresome work—good for my character."
"Oh!" Patty laughed.
"And then you see, when I have a tendency to overwork the men under me, I stop and think how my own back ached."
"You're much too nice a man to work for him!" she pronounced approvingly.
"Thank ye, Miss," he touched his hat with a grin.
The Italian garden was a fascinating spot, with marble steps and fountains and clipped yew trees.
"Oh, I wish Conny could see it!" Patty cried.
"And who is she?"
"Conny's my room-mate. She's awfully interested in gardens this year, because she's going to get the botany prize for analyzing the most plants—at least, I think she's going to get it. It's between her and Keren Hersey; all the rest of the class have dropped out. Mae Van Arsdale is working against Conny, to spite me, because I wouldn't stay in an old secret society that she started. She gets orchids from the city and gives them to Keren."