"I wish you were my aunt!" he exclaimed, abruptly, when Miss Vesta
appeared a few minutes later, with a screen of delicate white wool
over her head and shoulders.

"Is that what you wished to say to me?" asked Miss Vesta, somewhat
bewildered.

"No! oh, no! I was only thinking what a perfect aunt you would make.
No, I wanted to show you something; a line out of Browning,
illustrated in life; one of my favourite lines. See here, Miss Vesta!"

Miss Vesta looked.

"I see nothing," she began. "Oh, yes, a miller! Is that it, Doctor
Strong? Quite a curious miller. The study of insect life is no doubt--"

"A moth! don't you see?" cried the young doctor. "On the phlox, the
white phlox."

"'And here she paused in her gracious talk
To point me a moth on the milk-white phlox.'"


"Don't you remember, in the 'Garden Fancies?'"

But Miss Vesta did not remember.

Didn't she know Browning?