“Yes, I am going to paint them this afternoon. Whose idea was it massing that golden alyssum and blue lithospermum on the rocks behind them? It’s a touch of genius.”
Lavender’s nose curved when he smiled.
“That was one of my flashes. It looks good, doesn’t it?”
“One of the things that make you catch your breath.”
He swung along with his hawk’s profile in the air.
“I fancy we’re going to do some big things in the future. If I were a rich man and wanted the finest garden in England, I’d give Mr. Canterton a free hand. And, excuse me saying it, miss, but I’m glad you’ve joined us.”
He gave her a friendly glare from a dark and apprizing eye.
“I’m keen, keen as blazes, and I wouldn’t work with people who didn’t care! Mr. Canterton showed me those pictures of yours. I should like to have them to look at in the winter, when everything’s lying brown and dead. If you want to know anything, Miss Carfax, at any time, I’m at your service.”
His manners were of the quaintest, but she understood him, that he was above jealousy, and that he looked on her as a fellow enthusiast.
“I shall bother you, Mr. Lavender, pretty often, I expect. I want to know everything that can be known.”