Mrs. Verulam was seriously startled.
"What is it? What is the matter?" she exclaimed.
"There—there!" shrieked Chloe, pointing with a trembling finger to a remote part of the garden.
"Where? What? Is it a serpent? Is it a monster?"
"Boswell!" cried Chloe—"Boswell! Oh, if he sees me in these—oh! oh! Daisy, come—come!" and dragging the amazed Mrs. Verulam with her, she sprang across the garden, and darted into the paragon's house without so much as knocking at the door.
"They've a-gone inside. Darn it all!" remarked Mr. Minnidick to Mr. Bush among the sprouts.
The paragon made no reply, but went on digging in a heavy and almost soporific manner. His calm was so great, so apparently complete, that it nearly attained to majesty. The sphinx could not have gardened with a greater detachment in worlds before the sun and before the birth of Time.
Glancing from Mr. Minnidick's attic-window, Mrs. Verulam saw him, and cried out in wild astonishment:
"Chloe, there's Mr. Bush! How can he have got here?"