hesitated an instant, recalled the name, and went on, "Mr. Marsh doesn't
need to explain you any more. It's evident that you don't know Ashley,
or you'd realize that I've already heard a great deal more about you
than Mr. Marsh would be likely to tell me, very likely a good deal more
than is true. I know for instance, . . ." she laughed and corrected
herself, ". . . at least I've been told, what the purchase price of the
house was. I know how Harry Wood's sister-in-law's friend told you about
Ashley and the house in the first place. I know how many years you were
in the service of the Company, and how your pension was voted
unanimously by the Directors, and about the silver loving-cup your
fellow employees in the office gave you when you retired; and indeed
every single thing about you, except the exact relation of the elderly
invalid to whose care you gave up so generously so much of your life;
I'm not sure whether I she was an aunt or a second-cousin." She paused
an instant to give them a chance to comment on this, but finding them
still quite speechless, she went on. "And now I know another thing, that
you like gladioli, and that is a real bond."

She was interrupted here by a great explosive laugh from Vincent. It was
his comment on her speech to them, and for a time he made no other,
eyeing her appreciatively as she and Mr. Welles talked garden together,
and from time to time chuckling to himself. She gave him once a sidelong
amused glance, evidently liking his capacity to laugh at seeing the
ground cut away from under his feet, evidently quite aware that he was
still thinking about that, and not at all about Mr. Welles and
tulip-beds. Welles was relieved at this. Apparently she was going to
"take" Vincent the right way. Some ladies were frightfully rubbed the
wrong way by that strange great laugh of Vincent's. And what she knew
about gardening! And not only about gardening in general, but about his
own garden. He was astounded at her knowledge apparently of every inch