"Not for worlds!" said Verty.

"No, ma'am," said Redbud.

And they crossed the lawn, and opening the gate of the spacious and
well-kept garden, passed in under the apple boughs. As for Mr. Jinks,
he accompanied Mrs. Scowley to the house, bowing, grimacing, ambling,
and making himself generally agreeable. True, he resembled a
grasshopper, standing erect, and going through the steps of a minuet;
but there was much elegance in Mr. Jinks' evolutions, and unbounded
elasticity of limb. He entered with Mrs. Scowley; and there, for the
present, we shall leave him.




CHAPTER XII.

HOW STREPHON TALKED WITH CHLOE IN AN ARBOR.


It was a beautiful garden which Verty and Redbud entered, hand in
hand;--one of those old pleasure-grounds which, with their grass and
flowers, and long-armed trees, laden with fruit or blossoms, afford
such a grateful retreat to the weary or the sorrowful. The breath
of the world comes not into such places--all its jar and tumult and
turmoil, faint, die and disappear upon the flower-enameled threshold;
and the cool breath of the bright heavens fans no longer wrinkled
foreheads and compressed lips. All care passes from us in these