"
The scent of fresh bedewed things was in the air. It was true that she
had not known much about gardens, but here standing in the midst of
one she began to awaken to a new, practical interest. A creature of
initiative could not let such a place as this alone. It was beauty being
slowly slain. One could not pass it by and do nothing.
"What is your name?" she asked
"Kedgers, miss. I've only been here about a twelve-month. I was took on
because I'm getting on in years an' can't ask much wage."
"Can you spare time to take me through the gardens and show me things?"
Yes, he could do it. In truth, he privately welcomed an opportunity
offering a prospect of excitement so novel. He had shown more
flourishing gardens to other young ladies in his past years of service,
but young ladies did not come to Stornham, and that one having, with
such extraordinary unexpectedness arrived, should want to look over the
desolation of these, was curious enough to rouse anyone to a sense of
a break in accustomed monotony. The young lady herself mystified him
by her difference from such others as he had seen. What the man in the
shabby livery had felt, he felt also, and added to this was a sense of
the practicalness of the questions she asked and the interest she showed
and a way she had of seeming singularly to suggest by the look in her
eyes and the tone of her voice that nothing was necessarily without
remedy.
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