"Oh, it's the combination!" I answered, smiling; and then,
with rather a flight of fancy, "It's the idea of a garden
in the middle of the sea."

"It's not in the middle of the sea; you can't see the water."

I stared a moment, wondering whether she wished to convict me of fraud.
"Can't see the water? Why, dear madam, I can come up to the very gate
in my boat."

She appeared inconsequent, for she said vaguely in reply
to this, "Yes, if you have got a boat. I haven't any;
it's many years since I have been in one of the gondolas."
She uttered these words as if the gondolas were a curious
faraway craft which she knew only by hearsay.

"Let me assure you of the pleasure with which I would put mine at
your service!" I exclaimed. I had scarcely said this, however, before I
became aware that the speech was in questionable taste and might also do me
the injury of making me appear too eager, too possessed of a hidden motive.
But the old woman remained impenetrable and her attitude bothered me
by suggesting that she had a fuller vision of me than I had of her.
She gave me no thanks for my somewhat extravagant offer but remarked that the
lady I had seen the day before was her niece; she would presently come in.
She had asked her to stay away a little on purpose, because she herself wished
to see me at first alone. She relapsed into silence, and I asked myself
why she had judged this necessary and what was coming yet; also whether
I might venture on some judicious remark in praise of her companion.
I went so far as to say that I should be delighted to see her again:
she had been so very courteous to me, considering how odd she must