"'WHAT THE MISCHIEF ARE YOU DOING IN MY PEAR TREE?'"
"I think so. If the gardener holds the ladder tight against my car, it should fix it pretty firmly, and then I can climb on to the ladder. By the way, you are awfully good to take all this trouble on behalf of an entire stranger. I forgot to make the observation earlier, because, you see, we grow accustomed to finding ourselves uninvited guests. I once dropped into the middle of a Royal Garden Party."
"Did you, really? Tell me all about it," said the girl, forgetting her errand of mercy.
"Oh, they thought at first I was a Nihilist or a Fenian or something, come to blow up the whole Royal Family. I escaped finally by explaining that the Prince of Wales—who was fortunately absent—had hired me to make the descent by way of affording a little relief to the tedium of the gathering. Incidentally, may I ask into what particular garden I have had the good luck to fall?"
"This is Caviare Court, Fullerton, Kent."
"No? You don't mean it?"
"Why, yes. Why shouldn't I mean it?"
"That really is odd. Then your father is Colonel Currie?"
"Yes. How ever do you come to know that?"